Skip to main content

Full text of "The Century Guild hobby horse"

See other formats


No.  10.] 


PRICE  TWO  SHILLINGS  AND  SIXPENCE. 


[APRIL,  1888. 


CENTURA 

GUILD 


LONDON. 

KECAN  PAUL,TRENCH  ANDCO! 
1, PATERNOSTER  SQUARE. 


“THE  CENTURY  GUILD  HOBBY  HORSE. 


The  aim  of  the  Century  Guild  is  to  render  all  branches  of  Art  the 
sphere,  no  longer  of  the  tradesman,  but  of  the  artist.  It  would  restore 
building,  decoration,  glass-painting,  pottery,  wood-carving,  and  metal¬ 
work  to  their  rightful  place  beside  painting  and  sculpture.  By  so 
placing  them  they  would  be  once  more  regarded  as  legitimate  and 
honourable  expressions  of  the  artistic  spirit,  and  would  stand  in  their 
true  relation  not  only  to  sculpture  and  painting  but  to  the  drama,  to 
music,  and  to  literature. 

In  other  words,  the  Century  Guild  seeks  to  emphasize  the  Unity 
of  Art ;  and  by  thus  dignifying  Art  in  all  its  forms,  it  hopes  to  make  it 
living,  a  thing  of  our  own  century,  and  of  the  people. 

In  the  Hobby  Horse,  the  Guild  will  provide  a  means  of  expression 
for  these  aims,  and  for  other  serious  thoughts  about  Art. 

The  matter  of  the  Hobby  Horse  will  deal,  chiefly,  with  the 
practical  application  of  Art  to  life ;  but  it  will  also  contain  illustrations 
and  poems,  as  well  as  literary  and  biographical  essays. 

All  communications  to  be  addressed  to  the  Editor,  care  of 

KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH  AND  CO. 

PUBLISHED  QUARTERLY. 

To  be  had  of  all  Booksellers. 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  X. 

PAGE 

Frontispiece:  “Miranda:”  being  a  reproduction  in  photo¬ 
gravure  of  the  chalk  drawing  by  Frederick  Sandys. 

By  the  kind  permission  of  J.  Anderson  Rose,  Esq. 

“A  Hope  Carol.”  Christina  G.  Rossetti  .  .  .  .  .  41 

“Is  Music  the  Type  or  Measure  of  all  Art?”  John 

Addington  Symonds  ......  42 

“Amata  Loquitur.”  Herbert  P.  Horne . 52 

“  On  some  old  Title-pages,  with  a  sketch  of  their  origin, 

AND  SOME  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF 
MODERN  ONES.”  Alfred  W.  Pollard  .  .  .57 

Facsimile  of  the  Title-page  of  a  Roman  Missal,  printed  by 
Lucantonio  de  Giunta  at  Venice,  1509 

To  face  page  57 

Facsimile  of  the  Title-page  of  an  edition  of  the  Commen¬ 
taries  of  Simplicius  on  Aristotle’s  Categories, 

PRINTED  BY  ZACHARIAS  KaLLIERGOS  FOR  NlCOLAOS 

Blastos,  at  Venice,  1499  .  .  To  face  page  60 

“In  the  Days  of  the  Philistines.”  S el wyn  Image  .  .  64 

“  The  Present  Condition  of  English  Song- Writing.”  C. 

Hubert  H.  Parry  .......  69 

“  Marie  at  the  Window.”  A  Song,  composed  by  Arthur 

Somervell  ....  To  face  page  70 

“On  Revisiting  Lichfield  Cathedral.”  R.  Garnett  .  .  71 

“The  New  Reredos  at  St.  Paul’s  considered  in  its  relation 
to  the  whole  design  of  that  Cathedral.” 
Herbert  P.  Horne  ......  72 

The  Initial  Letters  and  Tail-pieces  are  from  designs  by 
Herbert  P.  Horne. 


Vault  Collection 


L.  Tom  Perry  Special  Collections 
Harold  B.  Lee  Library 
Brigham  Young  University 

.  H7 
no  .  1  0 
1888 
April 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 


1197  23968  84 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Brigham  Young  University 


https://archive.org/details/centuryguildhob101888lond 


A  HOPE  CAROL. 


A  night  was  near,  a  day  was  near, 

Between  a  day  and  night 

I  heard  sweet  voices  calling  clear, 

Calling  me : 

I  heard  a  whirr  of  wing  on  wing, 

But  could  not  see  the  sight ; 

I  long  to  see  my  birds  that  sing, 

I  long  to  see. 

Below  the  stars,  beyond  the  moon, 

Between  the  night  and  day 

I  heard  a  rising  falling  tune 
Calling  me : 

I  long  to  see  the  pipes  and  strings 
Whereon  such  minstrels  play ; 

I  long  to  see  each  face  that  sings, 

I  long  to  see. 

To-day  or  may  be  not  to-day, 

To-night  or  not  to-night, 

All  voices  that  command  or  pray 
Calling  me, 

Shall  kindle  in  my  soul  such  fire 
And  in  my  eyes  such  light 

That  I  shall  see  that  heart’s  desire 
I  long  to  see. 

Christina  G.  Rossetti. 


4i 


G 


S  MUSIC  THE  TYPE  OR  MEA¬ 
SURE  OF  ALL  ART? 

Mr.  Matthew  Arnold’s  definition  of  Poetry 
as  “  at  bottom  a  Criticism  of  Life,”  insisted 
somewhat  too  strenuously  on  the  purely 
intellectual  and  moral  aspects  of  art.  There 
is  a  widely  different  way  of  regarding  the 
same  subject-matter,  which  finds  acceptance  with  many 
able  thinkers  of  the  present  time.  This  ignores  the  criti¬ 
cism  of  life  altogether,  and  dwells  with  emphasis  upon  sen¬ 
suous  presentation,  emotional  suggestion,  and  technical 
perfection,  as  the  central  and  essential  qualities  of  art.  In 
order  to  steer  a  safe  course  between  the  Scylla  of  excessive 
intellectuality,  and  the  Charybdis  of  excessive  sensuousness, 
it  will  be  well  to  examine  what  a  delicate  and  philosophical 
critic  has  published  on  this  second  theory  of  the  arts.  With 
this  object  in  view,  I  choose  a  paper  by  Mr.  Walter  Pater 
on  “The  School  of  Giorgione.”1  The  opinion  that  art  has 
a  sphere  independent  of  intellectual  or  ethical  intention  is 
here  advocated  with  lucidity,  singular  charm  of  style,  and 
characteristic  reserve. 

Mr.  Pater  opens  the  discussion  by  very  justly  condemning 
the  tendency  of  popular  critics  “  to  regard  all  products  of  art 
as  various  forms  of  poetry.”  “  For  this  criticism,”  he  says, 
“poetry,  music,  and  painting  are  but  translations  into  different 
languages  of  one  and  the  same  fixed  quantity  of  imaginative 
thought,  supplemented  by  certain  technical  qualities  of 
colour  in  painting,  of  sound  in  music,  of  rhythmical  words 
in  poetry.”  “  In  this  way,”  he  adds,  “  the  sensuous  element 
in  art,  and  with  it  almost  everything  in  art  that  is  essentially 
artistic,  is  made  a  matter  of  indifference.”  He  then  pro¬ 
ceeds  to  point  out  that  each  of  the  fine  arts  has  its  own 
sphere,  its  own  untranslatable  mode  of  expression,  its  own 
way  of  reaching  the  imaginative  reason  through  the  senses, 
its  own  special  responsibilities  to  its  material. 

So  far,  every  intelligent  student  of  the  subject  will  agree 
with  him.  Nor  will  there  be  any  substantial  difference  of 

1  “  Fortnightly  Review,”  October,  1887.  I  should  not  have  thought  it  proper 
to  deal  with  a  single  article  of  this  kind,  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  not  been 
reprinted  by  Mr.  Pater,  unless  the  views  here  set  forth  were  current  among 
persons  worthy  of  respect. 


42 


opinion  as  to  the  second  point  on  which  he  insists — namely, 
that  each  of  the  arts,  while  pursuing  its  own  object,  and 
obeying  its  own  laws,  may  sometimes  assimilate  the  quality 
of  a  sister-art.  This,  adopting  German  phraseology,  Mr. 
Pater  terms  the  Anders-streben  of  an  art,  or  the  reaching 
forward  from  its  own  sphere  toward  the  sphere  of  another 
art.  We  are  familiar  with  the  thought  that  Greek  dramatic 
poetry  borrowed  something  of  its  form  from  sculpture,  and 
that  the  Italian  romantic  epic  was  determined  to  a  great 
extent  by  the  analogy  of  painting.  Nor  is  it  by  any  means 
an  innovation  in  criticism  to  refer  all  the  artistic  products  of 
a  nation  to  some  dominant  fine  art,  for  which  that  nation 
possessed  a  special  aptitude,  and  which  consequently  gave 
colour  and  complexion  to  its  whole  aesthetical  activity. 
Accordingly,  Mr.  Pater,  both  in  the  doctrine  of  the  indepen¬ 
dence  of  each  art,  and  also  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Anders- 
streben  of  one  art  toward  another,  advances  nothing  which 
excites  opposition. 

At  this  point,  however,  he  passes  into  a  region  of  more 
questionable  speculation.  Having  rebuked  popular  criticism 
for  using  poetry  as  the  standard  whereby  to  judge  the  arts, 
he  proceeds  to  make  a  similar  use  of  music ;  for  he  lays  it 
down  that  all  the  arts  in  common  aspire  “  towards  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  music,  music  being  the  typical,  or  ideally  consummate 
art,  the  object  of  the  great  Anders-streben  of  all  art,  of  all 
that  is  artistic,  or  partakes  of  artistic  qualities.” 

The  reason  for  this  assertion  is  stated  with  precision  : 1 

“All  art  constantly  aspires  towards  the  condition  of  music. 
For  while  in  all  other  works  of  art  it  is  possible  to  distinguish 
the  matter  from  the  form,  and  the  understanding  can  always 
make  this  distinction,  yet  it  is  the  constant  effort  of  art  to 
obliterate  it.  That  the  mere  matter  of  a  poem,  for  instance, 
its  subject,  its  given  incidents  or  situation ;  that  the  mere 
matter  of  a  picture,  the  actual  circumstances  of  an  event,  the 
actual  topography  of  a  landscape,  should  be  nothing  without 
the  form,  the  spirit  of  the  handling ;  that  this  form,  this 
mode  of  handling,  should  become  an  end  in  itself,  should 
penetrate  every  part  of  the  matter ; — this  is  what  all  art  con¬ 
stantly  strives  after,  and  achieves  in  different  degrees.” 


1  “Fortnightly  Review,”  p.  528.  The  italics  are  Mr.  Pater’s. 

43 


Having  illustrated  the  meaning  of  this  paragraph  by 
references  to  painting,  poetry,  furniture,  dress,  and  the  details 
of  daily  intercourse,  Mr.  Pater  proceeds  as  follows  : — 1 

“  Art,  then,  is  thus  always  striving  to  be  independent  of 
the  mere  intelligence,  to  become  a  matter  of  pure  perception, 
to  get  rid  of  its  responsibilities  to  its  subject  or  material ; 
the  ideal  examples  of  poetry  and  painting  being  those  in 
which  the  constituent  elements  of  the  composition  are  so 
welded  together  that  the  material  or  subject  no  longer  strikes 
the  intellect  only ;  nor  the  form,  the  eye  or  ear  only ;  but 
form  and  matter,  in  their  union  or  identity,  present  one  single 
effect  to  the  imaginative  reason,  that  complex  faculty  for 
which  every  thought  and  feeling  is  twin-born  with  its  sensible 
analogue  or  symbol. 

“  It  is  the  art  of  music  which  most  completely  realises  this 
artistic  ideal,  this  perfect  identification  of  form  and  matter, 
this  strange  chemistry,  uniting,  in  the  integrity  of  pure  light, 
contrasted  elements.  In  its  ideal,  consummate  moments, 
the  end  is  not  distinct  from  the  means,  the  form  from  the 
matter,  the  subject  from  the  expression ;  they  inhere  in  and 
completely  saturate  each  other ;  and  to  it,  therefore,  to  the 
condition  of  its  perfect  moments,  all  the  arts  may  be  sup¬ 
posed  constantly  to  tend  and  aspire.  Music,  then,  not  poetry, 
as  is  so  often  supposed,  is  the  true  type  or  measure  of  con¬ 
summate  art.  Therefore,  although  each  art  has  its  incom¬ 
municable  element,  its  untranslatable  order  of  impressions, 
its  unique  mode  of  reaching  the  imaginative  reason,  yet  the 
arts  may  be  represented  as  continually  struggling  after  the 
law  or  principle  of  music,  to  a  condition  which  music 
alone  completely  realises  ;  and  one  of  the  chief  functions  of 
aesthetic  criticism,  dealing  with  the  concrete  products  of 
art,  new  or  old,  is  to  estimate  the  degree  in  which  each  of 
those  products  approaches  in  this  sense  to  musical  law.” 

If  this  means  that  art,  as  art,  aspires  toward  a  complete 
absorption  of  the  matter  into  the  form — toward  such  a  blend¬ 
ing  of  the  animative  thought  or  emotion  with  the  embody¬ 
ing  vehicle  that  the  shape  produced  shall  be  the  only  right 
and  perfect  manifestation  of  a  spiritual  content  to  the  senses, 
so  that,  while  we  contemplate  the  work,  we  cannot  conceive 
their  separation — then  in  this  view  there  is  nothing  either 

1  “Fortnightly  Review,”  p.  530. 

44 


new  or  perilous.  It  was  precisely  this  which  constituted 
the  consummate  excellence  of  Greek  sculpture.  The  sculptor 
found  so  apt  a  shape  for  the  expression  of  ideal  personality, 
that  his  marble  became  an  apocalypse  of  godhood.  It  was 
precisely  this,  again,  which  made  the  poetry  of  Virgil  artisti¬ 
cally  perfect.  In  the  words  of  the  most  eloquent  of  Virgil’s 
panegyrists  :  “  What  is  meant  by  the  vague  praise  bestowed 
on  Virgil’s  unequalled  style  is  practically  this,  that  he  has 
been,  perhaps,  more  successful  than  any  other  poet  in  fusing 
together  the  expressed  and  the  suggested  emotion ;  that  he 
has  discovered  the  hidden  music  which  can  give  to  every 
shade  of  feeling  its  distinction,  its  permanence,  and  its  charm ; 
that  his  thoughts  seem  to  come  to  us  on  wings  of  melodies 
prepared  for  them  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.”1 

But  it  does  not  seem  that  Mr.  Pater  means  this  only.  We 
have  the  right  to  conclude  from  passages  which  may  be 
emphasised,  that  he  has  in  view  the  more  questionable  notion 
that  fine  arts  in  their  most  consummate  moments  all  aspire 
toward  vagueness  of  intellectual  intention — that  a  well-defined 
subject  in  poetry  and  painting  and  sculpture  is  a  hindrance 
to  artistic  quality — that  the  lust  of  the  eye  or  of  the  ear  is  of 
more  moment  than  the  thought  of  the  brain.  Art,  he  says, 
is  “  always  striving  to  be  independent  of  the  mere  intelli¬ 
gence,  to  become  a  matter  of  pure  perception,  to  get  rid  cf 
its  responsibilities  to  its  subject  or  material.”  “  Lyrical 
poetry,”  he  says,  “just  because  in  it  you  are  least  able  to 
detach  the  matter  from  the  form  without  a  deduction  of  some¬ 
thing  from  that  matter  itself,  is,  at  least  artistically,  the 
highest  and  most  complete  form  of  poetry.  And  the  very 
perfection  of  such  poetry  often  seems  to  depend  in  part  on 
a  certain  suppression  or  vagueness  of  mere  subject ,  so  that 
the  definite  meaning  almost  expires ,  or  reaches  us  through 
ways  not  distinctly  traceable  by  the  understanding.”  2 

This  is  ingenious  ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  theory 
has  a  plausible  appearance.  Yet,  were  we  to  carry  Mr.  Pater’s 
principles  to  their  logical  extremity,  we  should  have  to  prefer 
Pope’s  Verses  by  a  Person  of  Quality  to  the  peroration  of 
the  Dunciad,  and  a  fine  specimen  of  Japanese  screen- 

1  Essays,  Classical,  by  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  p.  115. 

2  “  Fortnightly  Review,”  p.  529.  Here  the  italics  are  not  Mr.  Pater’s,  but 
mine. 


45 


painting  to  Turner’s  Tdmdraire  or  Raphael’s  School  of 
Athens. 

So  far  as  the  art  of  poetry  goes,  he  seems  to  overstate  a 
truth,  which  is  finely  and  exactly  expressed  by  Mr.  Myers  in 
the  essay  on  Virgil  from  which  I  have  already  quoted.  The 
passage  is  long ;  but  it  puts  so  well  the  point  which  Mr. 
Pater  has  perhaps  exaggerated,  regarding  the  importance 
of  the  sensuous  and  suggestive  elements  in  poetry,  that 
I  venture  to  think  my  readers  will  be  glad  to  be  reminded 
of  it  P 

“  The  range  of  human  thoughts  and  emotions  greatly 
transcends  the  range  of  such  symbols  as  man  has  invented  to 
express  them  ;  and  it  becomes,  therefore,  the  business  of  Art 
to  use  these  symbols  in  a  double  way.  They  must  be  used 
for  the  direct  representation  of  thought  and  feeling;  but 
they  must  also  be  combined  by  so  subtle  an  imagination  as 
to  suggest  much  which  there  is  no  means  of  directly  express¬ 
ing.  And  this  can  be  done ;  for  experience  shows  that  it  is 
possible  so  to  arrange  forms,  colours,  and  sounds  as  to  stimu¬ 
late  the  imagination  in  a  new  and  inexplicable  way.  This 
power  makes  the  painter’s  art  an  imaginative  as  well  as  an  imi¬ 
tative  one  ;  and  gives  birth  to  the  art  of  the  musician,  whose 
symbols  are  hardly  imitative  at  all,  but  express  emotions 
which,  till  music  suggests  them,  have  been  not  only  unknown 
but  unimaginable.  Poetry  is  both  an  imitative  and  an  ima¬ 
ginative  art.  As  a  choice  and  condensed  form  of  emotional 
speech,  it  possesses  the  reality  which  depends  on  its  directly 
recalling  our  previous  thoughts  and  feelings.  But  as  a 
system  of  rhythmical  and  melodious  effects — not  indebted 
for  their  potency  to  their  associated  ideas  alone — it  appeals 
also  to  that  mysterious  power  by  which  mere  arrangements  of 
sound  can  convey  an  emotion  which  no  one  could  have  pre¬ 
dicted  beforehand,  and  which  no  known  laws  can  explain. 

“  And,  indeed,  in  poetry  of  the  first  order,  almost  every 
word  (to  use  a  mathematical  metaphor)  is  raised  to  a  higher 
power.  It  continues  to  be  an  articulate  sound  and  a  logical 
step  in  the  argument ;  but  it  becomes  also  a  musical  sound 
and  a  centre  of  emotional  force.  It  becomes  a  musical  sound  ; 
— that  is  to  say,  its  consonants  and  vowels  are  arranged  to 
bear  a  relation  to  the  consonants  and  vowels  near  it, — a  rela- 

1  Essays,  Classical,  p.  113-115. 

46 


tion  of  which  accent,  quantity,  rhyme,  assonance,  and  allitera¬ 
tion  are  specialised  forms,  but  which  may  be  of  a  character 
more  subtle  than  any  of  these.  And  it  becomes  a  centre  of 
emotional  force ;  that  is  to  say,  the  complex  associations 
which  it  evokes  modify  the.  associations  evoked  by  other 
words  in  the  same  passage  in  a  way  quite  distinct  from 
grammatical  or  logical  connection.  The  poet,  therefore, 
must  avoid  two  opposite  dangers.  If  he  thinks  too  exclu¬ 
sively  of  the  music  and  the  colouring  of  his  verses — of  the 
imaginative  means  of  suggesting  thought  and  feeling — what 
he  writes  will  lack  reality  and  sense.  But  if  he  cares  only 
to  communicate  definite  thought  and  feeling  according  to  the 
ordinary  laws  of  eloquent  speech,  his  verse  is  likely  to  be 
deficient  in  magical  and  suggestive  power.” 

This  is  right.  This  makes  equitable  allowance  for  the 
claims  alike  of  the  material  and  the  form  of  art — the  intel¬ 
lectual  and  emotional  content,  the  sensuous  and  artificial 
embodiment. 

But  to  return  to  Mr.  Pater.  His  doctrine  that  art  is  “  always 
striving  to  be  independent  of  the  mere  intelligence,”  his 
assertion  that  the  perfection  of  lyrical  poetry  “  often  seems  to 
depend  in  part  on  a  certain  suppression  or  vagueness  of  mere 
subject,”  contradict  the  utterances  of  the  greatest  craftsmen 
in  the  several  arts — Milton’s  sublime  passages  on  the  function 
of  Poetry,  Sidney’s  and  Shelley’s  Defences  of  Poesy,  Goethe’s 
doctrine  of  “  the  motive,”  Rossetti’s  canon  that  “  fundamental 
brain-work”  is  the  characteristic  of  all  great  art,  Michel¬ 
angelo’s  and  Beethoven’s  observations  upon  their  own  em¬ 
ployment  of  sculpture  and  music.  Rigidly  applied,  his  prin¬ 
ciples  would  tend  to  withdraw  art  from  the  sphere  of 
spirituality  altogether.  Yet,  considered  as  paradoxes,  they 
have  real  value,  inasmuch  as  they  recall  attention  to  the 
sensuous  side  of  art,  and  direct  the  mind  from  such 
antagonistic  paradoxes  as  the  one  propounded  by  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold  in  his  preface  to  Wordsworth. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  in  what  way  Mr.  Pater  can  evade  the 
strictures  he  has  passed  upon  his  brethren,  the  popular 
critics.  Whether  a  man  selects  poetry  or  selects  music  as 
the  “  true  type  or  measure  of  consummate  art,”  to  which  “  in 
common  all  the  arts  aspire,”  will  depend  doubtless  partly 
upon  personal  susceptibilities,  and  partly  upon  the  theory  he 

47 


has  formed  of  art  in  general.  Both  the  popular  critics  and 
Mr.  Pater  take  up  their  position  upon  equally  debatable 
ground.  The  case  stands  thus.  Mr.  Pater  is  of  opinion  that 
the  best  poetry  is  that  in  which  there  is  the  least  appeal  to 
“  mere  intelligence,”  in  which  the  verbal  melody  and  the 
suggestive  way  of  handling  it  are  more  important  than  the 
intellectual  content.  He  thinks  that  the  best  pictures  are 
those  in  which  the  “  mere  subject”  is  brought  into  the  least 
prominence.  Holding  these  views,  he  selects  music  as  the 
“  true  type  and  measure  of  consummate  art.”  Herein  he  is 
consistent ;  for  music,  by  reason  of  its  limitations,  is  the  least 
adapted  of  all  arts  for  the  expression  of  an  intellectual 
content.  The  popular  critic,  on  the  other  hand,  is  of  opinion 
that  the  best  poetry  is  that  which  has  the  clearest,  the  most 
human,  and  the  most  impressive  motive.  He  thinks  that  the 
best  pictures  are  those  which,  beside  being  delightful  by 
their  drawing  and  colour,  give  food  for  meditation  and  appeal 
to  mental  faculty.  Holding  these  views,  he  selects  poetry 
as  the  “  true  type  and  measure  of  consummate  art.”  Herein 
he  too  is  consistent ;  for  poetry,  by  reason  of  its  limitations, 
is  the  best  adapted  of  all  arts  for  appealing  to  intelligence 
and  embodying  motives  with  lucidity. 

Mr.  Pater  and  the  popular  critic  are  equally  right  or  equally 
wrong.  We  are,  in  fact,  confronting  two  different  concep¬ 
tions  of  art,  each  of  which  is  partial  and  one-sided,  because 
the  one  insists  too  strongly  on  the  sensuous  form,  the  other 
on  the  mental  stuff,  of  art. 

Supposing  a  man  does  not  accept  Mr.  Pater’s  doctrine  ; 
supposing  he  starts  from  another  point  of  view,  and  demands 
some  defined  conception  in  a  work  of  art  as  well  as  a  sen¬ 
suous  appeal  to  our  imaginative  reason  ;  supposing  he  re¬ 
gards  art  in  its  highest  manifestation  as  a  mode  of  utterance 
for  what  is  spiritual  in  man,  as  a  language  for  communi¬ 
cating  the  ideal  world  of  thought  and  feeling  in  sensible 
form  ;  then  he  will  be  tempted  to  select  not  music  but  poetry 
as  his  type  and  measure.  Thus  it  is  manifest  that  critics 
who  refer  to  the  standard  of  poetry,  and  critics' who  refer  to 
the  standard  of  music,  differ  in  this  mainly  that  they  hold 
divergent  theories  regarding  the  function  of  art  in  general. 

The  debatable  point  for  consideration  is  whether  either 
the  popular  critic  rebuked  by  Mr.  Pater  or  Mr.  Pater  him- 

48 


self  can  legitimately  choose  one  of  the  arts  as  the  “  type 
and  measure  ”  for  the  rest.  I  maintain  that  both  are  ex¬ 
pressing  certain  personal  predilections,  whereby  the  abiding 
relations  of  the  arts  run  some  risk  of  being  overlooked. 
What  the  matter  really  comes  to  is  this  :  while  the  one 
proclaims  his  preference  for  sensuous  results,  the  other  pro¬ 
claims  a  preference  for  defined  intelligible  content.  Each 
does  violence  by  his  selection  to  one  or  other  of  the  arts. 
The  critic  who  demands  a  meaning  at  any  cost,  will  find  it 
hard  to  account  for  his  appreciation  of  music  or  of  archi¬ 
tecture.  Mr.  Pater,  in  order  to  complete  his  theory,  is 
forced  to  depreciate  the  most  sublime  and  powerful  master¬ 
pieces  of  poetry.  In  his  view  drama  and  epic  doff*  their 
caps  before  a  song,  in  which  verbal  melody  and  the  com¬ 
munication  of  a  mood  usurp  upon  invention,  passion,  cere¬ 
bration,  definite  meaning. 

Just  as  the  subjectivity  of  any  age  or  nation  erects  one 
art  into  the  measure  of  the  rest,  so  the  subjectivity  of  a 
particular  critic  will  induce  him  to  choose  poetry  or  music, 
or  it  may  be  sculpture,  as  his  standard.  The  fact  remains 
that  each  art  possesses  its  own  strength  and  its  own  weak¬ 
ness,  and  that  no  one  of  the  arts,  singly  and  by  itself, 
achieves  the  whole  purpose  of  art.  That  purpose  is  to 
express  the  content  of  human  thought  and  feeling  in  sen¬ 
suously  beautiful  form  by  means  of  various  vehicles,  impos¬ 
ing  various  restrictions,  and  implying  various  methods  of 
employment.  If  we  seek  the  maximum  of  intelligibility, 
we  find  it  in  poetry ;  but  at  the  same  time  we  have  here  the 
minimum  of  immediate  effect  upon  the  senses.  If  we  seek 
the  maximum  of  sensuous  effect,  we  find  it  in  music ;  but 
at  the  same  time  we  have  here  the  minimum  of  appeal  to 
intelligence.  Architecture,  in  its  inability  to  express  definite 
ideas,  stands  next  to  music ;  but  its  sensuous  influence 
upon  the  mind  is  feebler.  As  a  compensation,  it  possesses 
the  privilege  of  permanence,  of  solidity,  of  impressive 
magnitude,  of  undefinable  but  wonder-waking  symbolism. 
Sculpture  owes  its  power  to  the  complete  and  concrete  pre¬ 
sentation  of  human  form,  to  the  perfect  incarnation  of  ideas 
in  substantial  shapes  of  bronze  or  stone,  on  which  light  and 
shadows  from  the  skies  can  fall :  this  it  alone  of  all  the  arts 
displays.  It  has  affinities  with  architecture  on  the  one 

49  h 


hand,  owing  to  the  material  it  uses,  and  to  poetry  on  the 
other,  owing  to  the  intelligibility  of  its  motives.  Painting 
is  remote  from  architecture ;  but  holds  a  place  where  sculp¬ 
ture,  poetry,  and  music  let  their  powers  be  felt.  Though 
dependent  on  design,  it  can  tell  a  story  better  than  sculp¬ 
ture  ;  and  in  this  respect  painting  more  nearly  approaches 
poetry.  It  can  communicate  a  mood  without  relying  upon 
definite  or  strictly  intelligible  motives ;  in  this  respect  it 
borders  upon  music.  Of  all  the  arts  painting  is  the  most 
flexible,  the  most  mimetic,  the  most  illusory.  It  cannot 
satisfy  our  understanding  like  poetry ;  it  cannot  flood  our 
souls  with  the  same  noble  sensuous  joy  as  music ;  it  cannot 
present  such  perfect  and  full  shapes  as  sculpture ;  it  cannot 
affect  us  with  the  sense  of  stability  or  with  the  mysterious 
suggestions  which  belong  to  architecture.  But  it  partakes 
of  all  the  other  arts  through  its  speciality  of  surface-delinea¬ 
tion,  and  adds  its  own  delightful  gift  of  colour,  second  in 
sensuous  potency  only  to  sound. 

Such  is  the  prism  of  the  arts  ;  each  distinct,  but  homo¬ 
geneous,  and  tinctured  at  their  edges  with  hues  borrowed 
from  the  sister-arts.  Their  differences  derive  from  the 
several  vehicles  they  are  bound  to  employ.  Their  unity  is 
the  spiritual  substance  which  they  express  in  common. 
Abstract  beauty,  the  IS  ex  rod  xxXou,  is  one  and  indivisible. 
But  the  concrete  shapes  which  manifest  this  beauty,  decom¬ 
pose  it,  just  as  the  prism  analyses  white  light  into  colours. 
Multae  terricolis  linguae  coelestibus  una. 

It  is  by  virtue  of  this  separateness  and  by  virtue  of  these 
sympathies  that  we  are  justified  in  calling  the  poetry  of 
Sophocles  or  Landor,  the  painting  of  Michaelangelo  or 
Mantegna,  the  music  of  Gluck  or  Cherubini,  sculpturesque; 
Lorenzetti’s  frescoes  and  Dantes  Paradiso,  architectural ; 
Tintoretto’s  Crucifixion  and  the  Genius  of  the  Vatican, 
poetical;  Shelley’s  lyrics  in  Prometheus  Unbound  and 
Titian’s  Three  Ages,  musical ;  the  fagade  of  the  Certosa  at 
Pavia,  pictorial ;  and  so  forth,  as  suggestion  and  association 
lead  us. 

But  let  it  be  remembered  that  this  discrimination  of  an 
Anders-streben  in  the  arts,  is  after  all  but  fanciful.  It  is 
at  best  a  way  of  expressing  our  sense  of  something  subjec¬ 
tive  in  the  styles  of  artists  or  of  epochs,  not  of  something 

50 


in  the  arts  themselves.  Let  it  be  still  more  deeply  remem¬ 
bered  that  if  we  fix  upon  any  one  art  as  the  type  and 
measure  for  the  rest,  we  are  either  indulging  a  personal 
partiality,  or  else  uttering  an  arbitrary,  and  therefore  incon¬ 
clusive,  aesthetical  hypothesis.  The  main  fact  to  bear  steadily 
in  mind  is  that  beauty  is  the  sensuous  manifestation  of  the 
idea — that  is,  of  the  spiritual  element  in  man  and  in  the 
world — and  that  the  arts,  each  in  its  own  way,  conveys  this 
beauty  to  our  percipient  self.  We  have  to  abstain  on  the 
one  hand  from  any  theory  which  emphasizes  the  didactic 
function  of  art,  and  on  the  other  from  any  theory,  however 
plausible,  which  diverts  attention  from  the  one  cardinal 
truth :  namely,  that  fine  and  liberal  art,  as  distinguished 
from  mechanical  art  or  the  arts  of  the  kitchen  and  millinery, 
exists  for  the  embodiment  of  thought  and  emotion  in  forms 
of  various  delightfulness,  appealing  to  what  Mr.  Pater  has 
well  called  the  imaginative  reason,  that  complex  faculty 
which  is  neither  mere  understanding  nor  mere  sense,  by 
means  of  divers  sensuous  suggestions,  and  several  modes  of 
concrete  presentation.  John  Addington  Symonds. 


5i 


AMATA  LOQUITUR: 


Again,  O  Christ,  the  bell  at  Llanagryn ! 

I  heard  aright?  No,  no  !  the  hills  are  high, 

Too  high  for  any  wind  of  earth  to  bear 

The  sound  across  the  rush-pools  on  the  heights, 

The  circle  of  bleached  stones,  the  early  way, 

The  fallen  cromlechs,  and  the  miles  of  waste  : 

It  cannot  be.  Yet,  hush  ! — again,  twice,  thrice. 
Fool,  that  I  am  !  my  conscience ’s  in  my  ears  ; 

It  is  not  full  time  for  the  Angelus, 

It  is  not  six.  And  yet  ’twas  thus  I  heard 
The  very  sound  on  Pensarn  that  foul  night 
Which  makes  all  days  and  nights,  that  follow  it, 
Terrible  as  itself ;  for  on  that  night 
I  bade  Thwane  come.  Twas  he  alone  of  man 
Or  living  thing  I  hated.  Well  he  knew 
I  loved  but  Jeffrey,  yet  he  asked  my  love  ; 

Nor  asked  it  only,  but  he  dogged  my  steps 
And  daily  made  unholy  taunts,  till  he 
Seemed  like  a  storm  of  slander  o’er  our  heads, 
Ready  to  burst,  and  with  a  flood  of  lies 
Deluge  my  love  for — nay,  ’twas  more  than  love, — 
Myself  in  Jeffrey.  Therefore  hour  by  hour 
A  swift  consuming  hatred  grew  in  me, 

A  hatred  of  his  looks,  his  ways,  his  words, 

Unbearable  and  restless,  and  became 

Stronger  than  Love,  Love  that  is  strong  as  Death. 

And  so  I  said  to  him,  “  Come,  Thwane,  to-night 

By  Ave-bell  at  nightfall  (for  it  was 

Well  in  the  waning  of  the  year) ;  come,  Thwane, 

To  Merlin’s  seat  on  Pensarn,  half-way  up 

That  silent  mountain.  Know  you  it  ?  It  hangs 

Over  the  ocean  towards  Anglesea.” 

And  he  replied,  “  I  know  it.”  And  I  said, 

“  Thwane,  I  will  give  until  you  ask  no  more.” 

Then  all  that  afternoon  it  seemed  the  sun 
Scarce  journied  in  the  heavens,  but  held  the  day 
The  space  of  many  days  ;  and  when  at  length 
He  past  into  the  sea  the  hurrying  night 

52 


Dropt  oversoon,  like  Death,  upon  the  land 
And  all  the  ocean.  So  in  haste  I  sped 
Up  Pensarn  till  I  reached  old  Merlin’s  seat, 

And  crouched  beside  it.  Then  I  heard  him  come 
Over  the  gorse  and  bracken  ;  and  I  said 
Within  myself,  “  ’Tis  early  that  he  comes.” 

And  when  he  came  I  feigned  a  stricken  voice, 

“  Hush  !  speak  not  for  God’s  sake;  someone  is  near. 
And  this  I  feigned,  because  I  inly  feared 
That  if  I  heard  some  word  that  Jeffrey  used 
Fall  from  his  lips,  it  might  abate  my  purpose ; 

So  whispered,  “  Hush  !  ”  Nor  did  I  look  on  him, 
Lest  seeing  he  was  flesh  and  blood  as  we, 

I  should  forget  my  hatred  ;  so  I  clenched 
My  eyes,  and  drove  my  soul  into  my  hands 
And  all  my  fingers  :  and  I  spoke  again, 

“  The  night  is  cold  and  biting,  you  shall  have 
My  wimple  for  a  neckcloth.”  And  undid 
Quickly  my  linen  wimple  from  my  face 
And  made  a  neckcloth.  He  was  looking  round, 

I  think,  into  the  night,  perchance  to  find 
The  feigned  intruder,  and  scarce  heeded  he 
My  words  :  yet  I  stayed  not  for  yea  or  nay, 

But  threw  my  linen  wimple  round  his  throat 
And  tied  it  thus,  and  thus,  and  thus ;  and  he 
Sank  like  a  sleeping  child,  down  at  my  feet. 

Then  knew  I  I  had  given  as  I  said, 

Nor  should  he  ask  again ;  and  so  I  laughed, 

And  all  the  hill-side  rang  out  with  my  laugh. 

Whether  it  was  that  I  had  tied  too  well 
The  neckcloth  I  had  made  him  ;  or  that  the  night 
Grew  darker  then,  so  that  I  could  not  see 
How  I  had  tied  the  knot ;  yet  this  I  know, 

That,  fumbling  at  the  wimple,  I  had  bowed 
Myself  over  his  body,  and  my  thoughts 
Presently  wandered  from  my  fingers,  on, 

On  till  I  found  my  eyes  held  by  his  eyes. 

It  was  not  all  at  once  I  knew  the  truth. 

It  came  not  as  the  bell’s  sound  came  just  now, 

53 


Suddenly,  in  an  instant.  It  dawned,  dawned 
Mysteriously  and  terribly  by  degrees 
Upon  my  half-numbed  sense.  It  seemed  as  though 
Someone  had  told  it  me  again,  again  ; 

And  my  poor  ears  had  heard  again,  again, 

What  had  been  told  me,  but  my  wretched  heart 
Dared  not  to  understand  it.  Yet,  at  last, 

The  iron  truth  broke  on  me  that  not  Thwane, 

Not  Thwane — ’twas  Jeffrey !  Then  it  was  I  heard 
The  Angelus  ring  out  from  Llanagryn. 

It  must  have  been  the  loosening  of  the  knot 
That  did  release  the  little  dregs  of  life 
From  out  his  lips ;  for  suddenly  I  caught 
A  struggling  word,  as  yet  I  knelt  by  him 
Bowed,  like  a  stone  and  speechless.  Why  did  he 
Speak  as  he  did  ?  He  should  have  cursed  me  there, 
There  where  I  knelt !  But  no,  ’twas  not  to  be  ; 

For  this  poor  heart  of  grief  too  soon  divined, 

From  half-said  words  and  broken  sentences, 

As  life  came  back  in  waves  to  ebb  again, 

Ebb  unto  death,  how  he  had  heard  it  tost, 

For  gossip  ’twixt  the  serfs,  that  I  that  night 
Should  meet  with  Thwane  at  some  appointed  place. 
But  here  his  soul,  as  if’t  had  been  aware, 

Endeavour  as  it  might,  it  could  but  speak 
Once  and  begone,  shook  like  a  winter  leaf 
Within  its  fair-made  house  of  flesh  ;  and  he 
Strained  all  his  passing  breath  into  these  words, 
Crying,  “  I  thought  to  follow  unobserved 
And  find  the  truth ;  now  have  I  found  the  truth. 
’Twas  but  a  snare  that  you  might  strangle  me ! 

But  I  forgive  you.”  Then  the  thin  life  went 
Up  from  him  like  a  bubble  in  a  stream. 

Whereat  my  tongue  was  loosened,  and  I  poured 
The  bitter,  bitter  truth  into  his  ears 
In  vain,  for  he  was  dead  and  heard  me  not. 

But  Thou,  Christ,  Who  canst  disabuse  the  soul, 
Wilt  Thou  permit  him  in  the  dismal  grave 
To  say  unto  his  ever-breaking  heart, 

54 


“  Woe !  woe  !  ’twas  but  a  snare  to  strangle  me  I  ” 

Still  did  I  pour  into  his  ruthless  ears 
My  own  exceeding  love  for  him,  my  hate 
Of  Thwane ;  my  love,  my  fear,  and  my  revenge  ; 
Until  I  knew  there  stood  above  my  head 
A  shadow  of  darkness.  And  I  raised  my  eyes, 

And  it  was  Thwane  ;  and  Thwane  said,  “  Even  thus 
You  would  have  sated  me.”  And  so  I  knew 
That  nothing  of  this  grief  was  hid  from  him. 

And  Thwane  went  on,  “Now  shall  you  come  with  me, 
Into  a  place  where  we  shall  not  be  found, 

And  do  my  bidding.  Come,  or  I  will  go 
To  Hendre  telling  all  that  I  have  seen.” 

Then  I  rose  up,  and  with  my  finger-tips 

Smote  him  upon  the  mouth,  and  answered,  “  Go !  ” 

Yet  neither  did  he  go,  nor  did  he  make 

Me  any  answer  ;  but  from  Jeffrey’s  neck 

He  took  my  wimple,  and  he  bound  instead 

His  leathern  girdle,  and  he  gave  to  me 

My  wimple,  crying,  “  Haste,  or  I  will  do 

More  evil  to  you  than  you  would.  Haste,  get 

To  Hendre,  and  keep  silence  ;  for ’t  shall  be, 

When  they  shall  find  my  girdle  at  his  throat, 

I  shall  have  past  into  another  land 
And  in  no  place  be  found.  Then  will  they  say 
Jeffrey  by  Thwane  was  killed  ;  but  you  shall  keep 
The  secret  of  this  evil  in  your  heart, 

And  day  by  day  its  weight  shall  grow  on  you, 

Till  life  become  as  grievous  to  be  borne 
As  love  was  sweet.” 

Then  thought  I,  “  I  will  go 
Swiftly  to  Hendre,  and  arouse  the  serfs  ; 

And  they  will  overtake  him  on  the  hills, 

And  he  will  suffer  what  my  hate  of  him 
Has  brought  to  pass.”  So  I,  without  a  word, 

Turned  like  a  hind  to  Hendre,  and  I  ran 
Into  the  Hall  dishevelled,  and  in  my  hand 
My  wimple,  and  a  lie  upon  my  lips, 

Crying,  “  Lo  !  I  was  walking  by  the  beach 
And  heard  a  shriek  as  of  a  murdered  man 
Come  from  the  hills  towards  Pensarn  !  ” 

55 


Then  they  rose, 

Each  knight  and  serf  of  Hendre,  and  they  searched 
Height  after  height,  even  until  they  came 
To  Cader  Idris  ;  yet  they  found  no  man, 

But  only  one  chill  body  ;  and  round  the  neck 
Thwane’s  leathern  girdle  wound.  And  so  it  was, 

As  he  had  said,  they  called  him  murderer. 

But  I  still  keep  the  secret  of  these  things 
Deep  in  my  heart,  untold  to  any  man, 

For  none  may  understand  it.  So  the  pain 
Of  these  things  grows  with  me,  grows  for  I  hear 
The  daily  tattle  call  him  murderer, 

Who  only  loved — Loved?  Nay,  speak  Christ!  Thou 
knowest, 

Had  I  but  loved  as  he,  Jeffrey  had  lived. 

Herbert  P.  Horne. 


56 


gflate  ’ftom  an  u:mulri5  Jngtjs/i'ma' 
ginibus/ac  Ominefcripturc-r 
croat  toctozdauctodtartbus 
ad  fcftroitatu  cogracrv 
dam  Dccozamm: 
nngrimetpu 


"fc. 


N  SOME  OLD  TITLE-PAGES, 
WITH  A  SKETCH  OF  THEIR 
ORIGIN,  AND  SOME  SUGGES¬ 
TIONS  FOR  THE  IMPROVE¬ 
MENT  OF  MODERN  ONES. 

In  the  year  1650  was  born  John  Bag- 
ford.  His  father  apprenticed  him  to  a 
shoemaker,  but  Nature  had  intended  him  to  be  the  minister 
and  scourge  of  bookmen,  and  to  this  end  it  was  necessary 
for  him  to  leave  his  last  and  seek  his  living  as  a  caterer  for 
the  libraries  of  great  men.  He  served  his  patrons  honestly 
and  well.  His  most  embittered  biographers  do  justice  to 
the  untiring  zeal  which  made  him  take  walking  tours 
through  Holland  and  Germany  in  search  of  bargains,  and 
so  little  profit  did  he  make  from  his  business  that  it  was 
only  a  nomination  to  the  Charterhouse  that  saved  his  old 
age  from  penury.  He  was  one  of  the  resuscitators  of  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries  ;  he  made  a  famous  collection  of  old 
ballads  ;  and  his  contemporaries,  when  he  died  in  1716,  paid 
elaborate  compliments  to  his  memory.  Yet  that  memory 
has  ever  since  been  execrated,  and  the  justice  of  the  execra¬ 
tion  is  indisputable.  When  the  name  of  John  Bagford  is 
mentioned  book-lovers  hiss  through  their  teeth  the  word 
Biblioclast,  and  in  that  mysterious  expression  lies  the  secret 
of  his  misdoing.  “  He  spent  his  life,”  says  his  latest  biogra¬ 
pher  with  terrible  judiciality,  “  in  collecting  materials  for  a 
history  of  printing  which  he  was  quite  incompetent  to 
write.”  His  materials  were  title-pages,  and  it  is  probably  a 
moderate  estimate  which  places  the  number  of  them  at 
about  five-and-twenty  thousand.  About  ten  thousand  of 
these  are  pasted  into  nine  large  folio  volumes  which  now 
belong  to  the  Department  of  Printed  Books  in  the  British 
Museum  ;  the  rest  form  part  of  the  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  volumes  of  his  Remains  in  the  Harleian  Collection 
in  the  Department  of  Manuscripts  of  the  same  institution. 
Specimens  of  Chinese  paper,  fragments  of  rare  bindings, 
engravings,  initial  letters,  publishers’  marks,  literary  corre¬ 
spondence,  lives  of  the  early  English  printers  in  Bagford’s 
manuscript,  make  up  the  other  volumes  of  this  melancholy, 
yet  profoundly  interesting,  collection  ;  and  if  there  be  any 
reader  of  this  paper  possessed  of  a  little  learned  leisure,  it 

57  1 


is  suggested  to  him  that  he  might  employ  it  to  many  worse 
purposes,  than  in  working  at  this  vast  collection,  and  ascer¬ 
taining  if  no  useful  results  can  be  extracted  from  the 
materials  so  laboriously  amassed.  The  title-pages,  with 
which  we  are  here  concerned,  have  already  been  to  a  con¬ 
siderable  extent  arranged  in  rough  chronological  order  under 
the  towns  at  which  they  were  printed.  A  glance  through 
the  earlier  volumes  may  incline  the  student  to  take  a  some¬ 
what  lenient  view  of  Bagford’s  misdoings.  A  book  is  always 
a  book,  but  if  any  are  to  be  selected  for  mutilation  it  would 
be  hard  to  make  a  better  choice  than  Dutch  and  German 
works  of  theology.  Even  the  first  volume  of  English  relics 
awakes  nothing  ferocious  in  the  way  of  indignation,  though 
it  contains  spoils  from  Florio’s  “  Montaigne,”  from  Withers’ 
“  Fidelia,”  from  Cotgrave’s  Dictionary,  and  from  the 
“  Declaration  of  Popish  Imposture,”  this  last  a  work  which 
we  know  that  Shakespeare  read,  and  haply  in  this  very  copy. 
But  further  investigation  discloses  whole  volumes  of  the 
charming  title-pages  of  Jean  Petit  and  of  our  own  special 
favourites  the  Juntas;  even  Wynkyn  de  Worde  is  not 
sacred  from  this  destroyer,  and  as  we  turn  the  pages  we 
tremble  with  mingled  fear  and  hope  lest  we  should  light 
upon  the  colophon  of  a  Caxton.  To  say  this  is  to  acquiesce 
in  the  strongest  denunciations  that  have  been  launched  at 
Bagford’s  unlucky  head,  and  there  is  nothing  left  but  a 
mournful  wonder  that  in  days  when  old  books  were  so 
cheap  that  a  needy  book-agent  could  afford  to  deal  as  he 
would  with  more  than  twenty  thousand  of  them,  such  price¬ 
less  opportunities  should  have  been  used  for  destruction 
rather  than  preservation. 

The  earliest  title-page  which  we  have  noted  in  Bagford’s 
collection  is  dated  1509,  or  just  half  a  century  after  Fust 
and  Scheffer  set  up  their  press.  As  is  well  known,  in  the 
evolution  of  the  printed  book  from  the  manuscript,  the  title- 
page  was  the  final  complement.  Not  that  all  manuscripts 
are  destitute  of  everything  in  the  shape  of  a  page  specially 
set  apart  for  the  title  of  the  work,  but  that  the  bibliographer 
demands  from  the  title-page  proper  that  it  should  contain 
not  only  the  name  of  the  book,  but  that  of  its  printer  or 
publisher,  the  town  at  which  it  is  issued,  and  the  date  of 
publication  ;  information  which  in  early  books  was  reserved 

58 


exclusively  for  the  colophon.  In  the  case,  indeed,  of  very 
early  books,  without  the  colophon  all  but  the  most  learned 
readers  would  be  hopelessly  at  sea.  Thus,  when  we  open  a 
book  printed  by  Nicholas  Jenson  we  find  at  the  top  of  the 
first  page  :  [C]um  multi  ex  Romanis  etiam  consularis  digni¬ 
tatis  uiri,  &c.  &c.,  and  are  plunged  at  once  into  a  lengthy 
historical  work,  which  we  may  or  may  not  be  able  to  identify 
for  ourselves.  But  when  we  turn  to  the  end  of  the  volume 
a  double  explanation  is  offered  us ;  the  first,  according  to  a 
pleasant  old  custom,  in  verse,  the  second  in  prose. 

Historias  ueteres  peregrinaque  gesta  reuoluo 
Iustinus,  lege  me  :  sum  trogus  ipse  breuis. 

Me  gallus  ueneta  Ienson  Nicolaus  in  urbe 
Formauit  Mauro  principe  Christophoro. 

Justini  historici  clarissimi  in  Trogi  Pompeii  historias  liber 
xliiii.  feliciter  explicit  mcccclxx.  From  this  we  learn  that 
the  work  is  the  abridgment  by  Justinus  of  the  Histories  of 
Trogus  Pompeius,  and  that  it  was  printed  in  Venice  by 
Nicolas  Jenson,  a  Frenchman,  in  the  year  1470,  when 
Cristoforo  Mauro  was  doge.  Here  we  have  information  in 
plenty,  but  to  be  obliged  to  turn  to  the  end  of  a  book  to 
know  its  subject  was  intolerable,  and  was  soon  felt  to  be  so. 
Even  in  very  early  books  we  sometimes  find  the  title  printed 
like  a  label  on  the  first  leaf,  but  the  commonest  plan  was  to 
head  the  first  printed  leaf  with  an  explanation  of  the  nature 
and  contents  of  the  book.  This  time  we  will  take  our 
example  from  a  work  printed  by  our  own  William  Caxton 
in  1483.  Here  the  first  leaf  is  blank,  the  second  has  at  its 
head :  “  This  book  is  intytled  the  pilgremage  of  the  sowle, 
translated  out  of  Frensshe  in  to  Englysshe.  Which  book 
is  ful  of  deuoute  maters  touchynge  the  sowle,  and  many 
questyons  assoyled  to  cause  a  man  to  lyue  the  better  in  this 
world,  And  it  conteyneth  fyue  bookes,  as  it  appereth 
herafter  by  Chapytres.”  At  the  end  of  the  work  this  infor¬ 
mation  is  repeated,  and  the  bibliographer  also  is  given  the 
details  which  he  desires.  Thus  the  colophon  runs  :  “  Here 
endeth  the  dreme  of  pylgremage  of  the  soule  translated  oute 
of  Frensshe  in  to  Englysshe,  With  somewhat  of  addicion, 
the  yere  of  oure  lord  mcccc.  &  thyrten  and  endeth  in  the 

59 


vigyle  of  Seynt  Bartholomew.  Emprynted  at  Westmestre 
by  William  Caxton  and  fynysshed  the  sixth  day  of  Juyn 
the  yere  of  our  lord  mcccclxxxiii.  and  the  first  yere  of  the 
regne  of  Kynge  Edward  the  fyfthe.”  On  the  verso  of  the 
first  leaf  of  the  British  Museum  copy  of  this  Caxton  the 
short  title  of  the  book  is  written  in  manuscript,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  slow  growth  of  the  title-page  is  best  to  be 
explained  by  that  same  humility  before  the  ornate  and 
gorgeous  flourishes  of  the  scribe,  which  caused  the  early 
printers  to  leave  blanks  for  the  initial  letters  and  chapter- 
marks  to  be  filled  in  by  hand.  But  as  printers  grew  in 
pride  they  scorned  dependence  on  any  but  themselves,  and 
from  1490  onwards  the  appearance  of  the  short  title  of  the 
work  on  the  first  leaf  begins  to  be  the  rule.  Thus,  in 
Vdrard’s  edition  of  the  French  work  from  which  Caxton’s  is 
translated  the  title-page  reads:  “Le  pelerinaige  de  lame,”  and 
so  with  many  other  of  his  works.  In  one  instance  as  early 
as  1493  the  place  of  imprint  is  already  added  to  the  title- 
page,  which  runs :  “  Des  deux  amans  translate  de  latin  en 
fracois  et  imprime  a  paris  nouuellement.”  This,  however,  is 
an  exception,  and  down  to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
what  we  may  call  the  label  title-page  continues  to  be  the 
rule,  but  occasionally  embellished,  sometimes  by  a  printer’s 
emblem,  sometimes  by  an  ornamental  wood-cut. 

To  the  two  different  methods  of  embellishment  indicated 
in  the  last  paragraph,  the  right-thinking  book-lover  will 
attach  very  different  values.  Both  in  Italy  and  France  the 
addition  of  an  ornamental  wood-cut  has  produced  some  very 
beautiful  title-pages.  One  of  these  is  given  as  an  illustra¬ 
tion  to  this  article,  partly  for  its  intrinsic  beauty,  partly 
as  a  protest  against  the  prevalent  idea  that  the  only  pos¬ 
sible  illustration  to  a  title-page  is  a  small  steel-engraved 
vignette  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  page.  But  though 
wood-cuts,  if  in  themselves  beautiful  and  in  due  relation 
to  the  subject  of  the  work,  form  a  very  delightful  embellish¬ 
ment,  it  is  evident  that  they  will  vary  in  goodness  with 
the  condition  of  arts  with  which  printers  have  nothing 
to  do,  that  they  form  a  serious  addition  to  the  cost  of  pro¬ 
duction,  and  also  are  incompatible  with  the  presence  of  any 
but  the  least  pretentious  of  publishers’  or  printers’  devices. 
These  last,  on  the  other  hand,  are  thoroughly  in  place  on 


CIMHAIKIOY  HerAAOY  AIAACKAAOY 
'YflOMNHMAGlC  TAC  AGKAKATH- 
fOFIAC  TOY  AFICTOT6AOYC  - 


\ 


1 


every  title-page ;  they  form  an  item  of  expenditure  which 
need  only  be  incurred  once,  and  with  the  scores  of  good 
examples  from  which  it  is  open  to  modern  publishers  to 
borrow,  it  can  only  be  a  certain  perversity  which  even  in 
the  most  degraded  state  of  art  can  fail  in  securing  a  reason¬ 
ably  good  one.  The  addition  of  the  publishers  device  to 
every  book  which  is  considered  worth  decent  paper  and 
decent  print,  is  thus  the  first  of  the  few  suggestions  which  it 
is  part  of  the  design  of  this  article  to  offer.  The  splendid 
device  of  Nikolaos  Blastos  (1499),  which  we  give  as  one  of 
our  illustrations,  errs  indeed  on  the  side  of  excess,  since 
it  dwarfs  the  title  of  the  book  into  insignificance ;  but 
this  makes  it  only  the  better  example  of  the  fearlessness 
of  the  old  printers  in  their  employment  of  this  form  of 
ornament. 

Of  the  last  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  title-page  little 
need  be  said.  By  the  addition  of  the  publisher’s  device  the 
contemporary  book-lover  was  informed  both  of  the  publisher 
and  the  place  of  imprint,  and  to  this  day  the  title-pages  of 
the  books  of  certain  firms,  who  may  have  their  own  reasons 
for  omitting  the  year  of  publication,  tell  their  purchasers  no 
more  than  this.  Throughout  the  sixteenth  century  the  use 
of  colophons  continued  general,  and  during  the  years  1510- 
1540,  while  the  full  title-page  was  growing  up,  the  amount 
of  information  repeated  from  the  colophon  is  very  arbitrary, 
consisting  sometimes  of  date  and  place,  sometimes  of  place 
and  publisher’s  name,  sometimes  of  publisher’s  name  and 
date.  By  1540  the  full  title-page  had  become  the  rule,  and 
it  is  sad  to  have  to  state  that  the  results  of  this  laborious 
growth,  especially  in  England  and  Germany,  were  singu¬ 
larly  hideous,  and  became  increasingly  so  during  the  next 
century.  The  causes  or  symptoms  of  this  decadence  may  be 
reduced  to  three  heads  :  (1)  the  disuse  or  decreased  impor¬ 
tance  of  the  publisher’s  device,  owing  to  the  presence  on  the 
title-page  of  the  imprint  previously  only  given  in  the 
colophon  ;  (2)  the  desire  to  state  too  much  ;  (3)  the  desire  to 
emphasize  certain  words  in  the  title,  which  gradually  degene¬ 
rated  into  an  inane  ambition  on  the  part  of  the  printer  to 
show  off  the  multiplicity  of  his  types.  On  the  second  and 
third  of  these  causes  it  is  necessary  to  say  a  few  words. 
The  earliest  titles  were  as  a  rule  quite  short,  and  readers 

61 


were  left  to  discover  the  names  sometimes  of  authors,  and 
almost  invariably  of  editors  and  translators,  from  prefatory 
or  commendatory  epistles.  But  as  editions  multiplied  such 
information  as  this  had  necessarily  *  to  be  placed  on  the 
forefront  of  the  book,  and  soon  we  have  elaborate  explana¬ 
tions  of  how  commentator  B  has  improved  upon  the 
labours  of  commentator  A,  and  how  everything  has  been 
‘  diligentissime  castigatum  ’  and  is  now  ‘  multo  quam  antea 
accuratius.’  The  habit  of  ‘  book-building  ’  also  soon  came 
into  existence,  and  the  problem  had  to  be  faced  of  duly 
informing  purchasers  of  the  contents  of  a  volume  made  up 
of  several  parts,  each  by  a  different  author.  Two  Aldine 
title-pages  may  serve  as  examples  of  how  the  elder  printers 
met  this  difficulty  of  long  titles.  ‘  In  hoc  libro  haec  con¬ 
tinents’  runs  the  head-line  of  a  title-page  1495;  and 
then  follow  in  eight  successive  paragraphs,  ‘  Constantin i 
Lascaris  Erotemata  cu  interpretatione  latina,”  and  a  list 
of  seven  other  works.  Again,  in  a  Horace  of  1519  the 
title  “  Q.  Horatii  Flacci  Poemata  Omnia”  in  large  type, 
is  followed  by  a  long  list  of  editors,  index-makers,  etc., 
printed  in  small  italics  arranged  triangularly.  In  both 
cases  the  title-page  keeps  its  antique  massive  appearance, 
while  full  information  is  given  with  all  possible  clearness. 
But  such  simplicity  was  not  to  the  taste  of  later  printers, 
and  the  titles  of  similarly  composed  books  are  soon  spread 
over  the  whole  page,  with  a  painful  repetition  of  every  pos¬ 
sible  synonym  for  the  phrase  ‘To  which  is  added.’  To 
further  assist  the  reader  in  detecting  the  merits  of  the  book 
offered  for  sale,  the  important  words  in  the  title  were  now 
brought  into  prominence  by  the  use  of  different  types,  or  by 
the  interchange  of  red  and  black  ink.  These  alterations 
made  woful  havoc  with  the  beauties  which  had  characterized 
the  old  title-pages,  but  at  least  they  were  prompted  by  a 
reasonable  aim,  and  were,  therefore,  to  be  excused,  if 
regretted.  But  with  the  continued  decadence  of  the  art  of 
printing,  all  method  was  lost  in  the  madness  which  seized 
on  those  responsible  for  sixteenth-  and  seventeenth-century 
title-pages.  When  red  ink  was  used  at  all  it  appeared  in 
alternate  lines  with  black ;  the  size  of  types  was  regulated 
sometimes  by  a  desire  to  begin  with  the  largest,  at  others 
without  even  this  show  of  reason.  In  an  edition  of  “A/ 

62 


Second/  part  of  Essayes/  by  Sir  W.  Cornwallis,”  the  word 
‘  Second  ’  is  twice  the  size  of  any  other ;  so  in  the  title- 
page  of  ‘  Certaine  Miscellany  works  of  the  Right  Honour¬ 
able  Francis,  Lo.  Verulam,  Viscount  St.  Albans,’  the 
words  ‘  The  Right  Honourable  ’  are  large  enough  to  swallow 
all  the  rest.  Along  with  these  absurdities  another  custom 
may  be  mentioned  by  which,  the  necessity  of  a  multiplicity 
of  types  being  regarded  as  over-riding  the  requirements  of 
sense,  one  half  of  a  word  would  often  be  printed  in  large 
type,  the  other  in  small.  Examples  of  this  arrangement 
maybe  found  in  the  advertising  columns  of  most  newspapers, 
and  therefore  need  not  be  given  here. 

The  above  brief  summary  of  the  misdoings  of  Elizabethan 
printers  justifies  some  measure  of  congratulation  that  at 
least  in  this  respect  we  are  better  than  our  fathers.  But  the 
repentance  of  modern  printers  and  publishers  is  marked  by 
much  timidity.  The  merits  of  the  old  title-pages  may  be  sum¬ 
marized  as  consisting  in  :  (i)  the  quaintness  and  beauty  of 
their  printer’s  emblems  ;  (2)  the  restriction  of  the  number  of 
types  to  a  minimum,  which  usually  allowed  only  one,  and 
seldom  more  than  two ;  (3)  the  massive  arrangement  of 
these  types  either  in  rectangles  like  those  now  used  in  this 
magazine,  or  triangles,  as  in  our  Junta  illustration ;  (4)  the 
skilful  use  of  red  ink.  During  the  last  few  years  our  leading 
publishers  have  revived  the  use  of  emblems,  but  with  an 
obvious  alarm  lest  they  should  appear  too  conspicuous  on 
the  title-page.  The  multiplicity  of  types  continues  an  evil. 
A  book  published  the  other  day,  and  printed  by  one  of  the 
best  firms  of  printers,  has  no  less  than  twelve  varieties  on 
its  title-page,  and  six  or  seven  are  not  an  uncommon  number. 
The  massive  arrangement  of  the  words  of  the  title  has  ap¬ 
peared  not  only  in  this  magazine,  and  in  the  publications 
of  the  Villon  Society,  but  even  in  some  stray  volumes  of 
shilling  reprints.  As  for  red  ink,  everybody  uses  it,  but 
alas,  without  much  discretion.  To  fall  into  a  form  of  expres¬ 
sion  which  has  closed  many  a  preface :  if  the  beauty  of  our 
illustration  shall  persuade  but  a  single  publisher  to  mass  all 
his  red  (N.B.  not  pink)  in  one  portion  of  the  title-page,  and 
leave  the  rest  in  the  simplicity  of  sables,  “this  article  will 
not  have  been  written  in  vain.”  Alfred  W.  Pollard. 


63 


N  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  PHILI¬ 
STINES. 

A  friend  of  mine  was  shewing  me  the 
other  day  some  charming  verses,  which 
he  had  just  finished ;  and  their  moral, 
certainly,  was  not  less  excellent  than  their 
rhythm.  Why  should  we  lament  Greek 
Helen,  they  said,  and  those  wonderful  loves  of  Horace  and 
Catullus  ?  If  only  we  have  eyes  to  see,  and  will  keep  them 
open,  in  London  we  shall  meet  with  ladies  as  beautiful  as 
they  were,  and  our  experiences  may  prove  as  romantic  as  ever 
the  most  poetical  spirit  can  wish. 

So  Lawrence  Burton,  the  artist,  seems  to  have  found. 
His  twelve-month’s  worship  of  Ethel  Calderon  grows  deeper 
day  by  day.  That  her  beauty  has  taken  possession  of  him, 
anybody  who  calls  him  friend,  and  watches  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  his  work,  may  see  easily  enough.  Not  that 
Lawrence  raves  about  her,  or  pesters  his  acquaintance  with 
sonnets  written  to  her  eyes  and  hair :  but  sometimes  in  the 
confidence  of  an  evening’s  smoke  together  our  talk  has  fallen 
upon  Ethel :  and  then  one  may  learn  what  she  is  to  him  by 
hints  assuredly  significant ;  while  in  the  faces  and  figures  of 
his  drawings  we  are  struck  by  perpetual  reminiscences, 
consciously  and  unconsciously  recorded,  of  the  girl’s  curious 
beauty. 

Yet,  would  everybody  be  charmed  by  her,  or  even  allow 
that  she  was  beautiful  ?  Let  me  try  and  draw  you  a  sketch 
of  the  young  lady,  that  held  out  her  hand  to  me  with  just 
the  slightest  smile,  when  one  day  a  few  months  since 
Lawrence  was  good  enough  to  introduce  us.  Tall,  and 
singularly  slight  in  figure,  she  was  dressed  in  a  plain,  dark- 
blue  serge,  that  fitted  closely ;  and  her  hat  of  the  same 
material  was  trimmed  with  dark  blue  ribbon.  The  effect  of 
such  austere  adornment  was  certainly  to  emphasize  both  her 
features  and  the  finely  curved  lines  of  her  figure.  The  dark- 
brown  eyes,  as  you  first  met  her,  were  what  struck  you  at 
once  :  they  appeared  even  extraordinarily  large  :  but  almost 
immediately,  as  she  kept  looking  out  on  you  frankly  with 
them,  you  felt  that  this  appearance  of  largeness  was  not 
wholly  dependent  upon  actual  size,  but  upon  the  iris  and  the 
pupil  being  almost  of  a  single  shade,  recalling  to  you  irre- 

64 


sistibly  the  blank,  patient,  pathetic  look  of  some  beautiful 
animals.  Above  them  the  brow  sloped  back  with  the  subtle 
curve,  which  characterizes  the  heads  of  Hera  or  Athene  on 
ancient  coins ;  the  low,  white  brdw,  passing  into  delicate 
gray  beneath  a  cluster  of  little,  brown  curls,  which  just 
showed  themselves  from  under  the  blue  serge  of  her  simple 
hat.  It  was  not  of  a  Greek,  however,  that  the  girl’s  slightly 
aquiline  nose  reminded  you,  but  of  a  Florentine  relief  of  the 
Renaissance  :  the  sensitive  curl  of  the  nostril  leading  you, 
as  by  an  artistically  considered  transition  of  Nature  herself, 
on  to  the  wide  and  perfectly  struck  curve  of  her  full,  ripely- 
coloured  lips :  the  full  brown  of  the  large  eyes,  the  full  red¬ 
ness  of  the  large  mouth,  being  at  once,  and  almost  weirdly, 
emphasized  against  the  general  paleness  of  the  flesh.  The 
whole  head  was  small,  and  set  daintily  forward  on  a  long, 
slender  neck.  Donatello  would  have  seized  on  such  a  model 
at  once.  With  what  loving  subtlety  would  his  delicate  fingers 
have  left  us  a  portrait  of  her  to  wonder  at  in  the  low, 
marble  relief!  I  think  he  would  have  altered  little  :  I  think 
he  would  have  recognized  a  “subject  made,”  as  if  by  an 
immediate  providence,  “  to  his  hand.” 

When  Burton  first  came  face  to  face  with  Ethel  Calderon, 
she  was  quietly  strolling  up  and  down  one  spring  evening,  to 
the  strains  of  that  mysterious  music  of  a  valse,  which,  how¬ 
ever  faulty  may  be  the  execution  of  the  orchestra,  is  always 
irresistibly  seductive.  Their  eyes  met  full  :  but  they  did 
not  speak,  or  even  smile.  Physically  they  did  not  either  of 
them  pause  for  the  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  moment.  But 
the  delicate,  intimate  affinities  of  Love  are  not  necessarily 
dependent  upon  conditions  of  time  or  touch :  and  after 
staying  in  the  crowd  a  minute  or  two  longer,  as  it  were  for 
the  mere  purpose  of  recovering  himself,  Lawrence  walked 
out  into  the  sharp  April  air,  possessed.  In  his  diary  for 
that  evening  there  is  a  short,  perfervid  entry.  It  is  partly  a 
cry  of  pain,  a  cry  certainly  of  wonder ;  the  cry  as  of  a  man, 
who  has  been  wandering  about,  not  aimlessly,  but  with  a 
dread  upon  him  that  this  wandering  may  prove  aimless  after 
all  in  the  end  ;  and  who  then  comes  suddenly  full  on  his 
dream  and  desire  there  actually  before  him.  In  a  moment 
there  is  a  sense  of  God,' and  he  is  down  upon  his  knees  very 
humbly,  and  in  thanksgiving. 


K 


I  have  hinted  that  Burton  was  not  a  man  to  carry  his 
heart  upon  his  sleeve.  His  most  intimate  friends  did  not 
immediately  recognize  by  any  word  or  manner  of  his  the 
visitation  of  this  new  experience.  His  tall,  powerful  figure 
moved  easily  amongst  us  as  usual.  If  anything,  his  careful 
dress  was  a  little  more  careful ;  his  grave  face,  and  quiet 
behaviour,  a  little  more  grave  and  inward :  as  one  thinks 
now,  a  sort  of  silence  hung  about  him,  such  as  becomes  a 
man  in  some  sacred  spot  full  of  subduing  yet  incentive 
influences.  But  this  change,  quite  real  certainly,  was  out¬ 
wardly  so  slight,  that,  though  now  we  can  recall  it,  at  the 
moment  it  passed  amongst  us  unobserved.  For  Burton 
himself,  however,  the  heavens  and  the  earth  had  opened 
their  secrets :  and  in  the  centre  of  a  new  world  of  things 
stood  the  Lady,  across  whom  Love  had  brought  him  that 
evening,  transfiguring  its  objects  and  its  aims,  and  inducing  in 
him  strange,  new  fancies,  and  determinations  towards  them. 

But  the  nature  of  every  real  artist  is  sensuous :  it  is  not 
content  with  the  contemplation  of  life’s  secrets  as  ideas,  but 
desires  veritably  to  touch  and  handle  them.  And  so  it  was 
inevitable,  that  Lawrence  Burton  should  set  himself  to  meet 
Miss  Calderon,  to  become  acquainted  with  her,  to  let  her 
know,  whatever  might  be  the  manner  of  her  accepting  the 
intelligence,  what  a  significance  her  existence  had  for  him. 
And  assuredly  in  this  case  there  did  not  seem  to  be  those 
initial  difficulties,  with  which  the  conventionalisms  of  society 
hedge  around  the  first  advances  of  an  acquaintance.  The 
difficulties  were  rather  such  as  sprang  from  Burton’s  own 
self-consciousness,  from  his  overstrained  fear  of  being 
jestingly,  even,  as  was  not  at  least  impossible,  with  some 
coarseness,  repelled ;  or  of  a  shocking  disappointment, 
supposing  the  feelings  or  the  words  of  the  girl  should  not 
be  such  as  were  the  proper  complement  of  her  physical 
beauty.  For  many  days  together  he  sought  her  at  the  time,  and 
in  the  places,  that  he  fancied  were  likely  again  to  bring  them 
face  to  face.  Yet  face  to  face  they  came  more  than  once,  * 
and  passed  one  another  by.  The  man’s  sensitive  horror  of 
repulse  or  of  disappointment  rendered  him  quite  foolishly 
vacillating ;  as  it  is  with  us  when  we  fear  to  move  close  up 
to  a  beautiful  bird  or  butterfly,  lest  we  should  frighten  the 
fairness  away,  and  wholly  lose  it. 

66 


Their  acquaintance  came  of  course  finally,  came  one 
evening  in  a  manner  almost  as  sudden  as  was  that  of  the  first 
meeting.  Burton’s  eyes  met  Ethel’s  not  for  the  first  or  the 
second  time;  and  the  faint,  nervous  smile,  which  gathered  up 
her  lips  into  an  even  more  beautiful  curve,  was  surely  Love’s 
own  call  of  recognition  and  acceptance.  As  he  raised  his 
hat  and  spoke  to  her,  his  first  sensation  was  one  of  wonder 
as  to  what  it  was,  that  could  have  kept  them  so  long  apart : 
his  own  sister  seemed  scarcely  better  known  to  him  ;  nor 
was  his  behaviour  towards  Ethel,  unspoiled  by  any  taint  of 
shyness,  less  easy  than  would  have  been  natural  in  a  brother. 
Miss  Calderon  lived  down  by  the  river  at  Chelsea :  and  in 
a  week’s  time  Lawrence  Burton  might  have  been  found  there 
spending  the  afternoon  with  her,  and  her  friend,  Catarina ; 
with  a  little  pencil  sketch  of  that  exquisite  renaissance  head 
in  his  pocket-book,  drawn  hastily,  but  not  without  care,  in 
the  half-hour  that  they  had  been  alone  together,  before  after¬ 
noon  tea  came  in,  and  they  could  be  alone  no  longer. 

A  week,  a  month,  three  months  passed,  and  Burton  seldom 
visited,  or  even  saw,  Ethel.  The  dear  child  had  grown 
more  dear  to  him  ;  but  he  doubted  seriously,  whether  on  her 
part  she  had  any  care  for  his  existence.  Moreover  there  was 
this  characteristic  scrupulosity  about  the  way  of  his  affection 
for  the  girl,  that,  whenever  he  called  at  Chelsea,  or  went 
wandering  to  meet  her  elsewhere,  he  would  not  willingly 
present  himself  without  some  sweet  sacrament,  as  he  un¬ 
affectedly  held  it  to  be,  of  his  devotion  ;  at  the  least  a 
daintily-tied  box  of  sweetmeats  ;  a  soft,  silk  handkerchief  to 
guard  the  slim  neck  and  lie  amid  the  warmth  of  the  low 
bosom ;  or,  more  frequently,  a  delicately  arranged  bunch  of 
choice  and  fragrant  flowers,  with  their  natural  leaves,  which 
he  would  pin  against  the  white  frills  of  her  tightly-fitting 
dress,  as  a  piece  of  positive  colour,  that  made  even  more 
seductive  the  pearl  tints  of  her  throat  and  shell-like  ear;  and 
over  which,  as  he  left  them  there,  his  kiss,  while  their  lips 
pressed  full  on  one  another,  was  to  his  fancy  a  religious, 
consecrating  ceremony.  But  choice  offerings,  however 
small,  selected  here  and  there  with  no  little  thought  as 
to  their  appropriateness,  we  cannot  lay  frequently  at  the 
shrines  of  our  devotion  without  a  sensible  drain  on  our 
resources :  and  Burton’s  resources  were  far  from  inex- 

67 


haustible.  He  forced  himself  therefore  into  a  state  of 
self-denial,  and  tried  hard  to  be  content  with  memories  and 
dreams.  At  the  end  of  three  months’  time  he  went  for  a 
long-promised  visit  into  the  country.  It  would  have  been 
different,  had  he  been  certain  of  any  desire  on  Ethel’s  part 
for  his  companionship ;  had  his  natural  over-sensitiveness 
allowed  him  even  a  serious  fancy,  that  such  a  desire  might 
gradually  be  possible  for  her.  But  without  certainty,  and 
except  under  exciting,  evanescent  conditions  of  emotion 
nearly  without  hope,  he  kept  himself  steadily  out  of  her  way. 

On  the  afternoon  that  he  returned  home  he  found  awaiting 
him  a  letter,  directed  in  a  strange  hand.  Opening  it  he 
found  to  his  astonishment  that  it  came  from  Catarina :  its 
date  was  ten  days  old :  by  some  stupid  mistake  it  had  never 
been  forwarded  to  him.  “  Ethel  has  been  very  ill,  almost 
dead,”  she  wrote.  “  She  has  asked  me  to  send  this,  and  beg 
you  to  come  and  see  her.” 

In  as  short  a  time  as  a  hansom  could  take  him  in 
Lawrence  stood  by  the  dear  girl’s  bed.  “  How  cruel  you 
must  have  thought  me,”  he  cried,  “  I  have  been  away :  only 
this  moment  has  the  letter  reached  me.”  “  I  knew;  I  knew 
it  must  be  so,”  Ethel  quietly  answered.  A  faint  perfume  of 
violets  filled  the  warm,  dimly-lighted  room.  “  My  child,” 
he  said  very  softly,  “  my  child !  ”  And  as  their  lips  met  and 
clung  to  one  another  in  a  long  silence,  I  think  that  Hope  was 
born  into  Lawrence  Burton’s  life.  Selwyn  Image. 


68 


HE  PRESENT  CONDITION  OF 
ENGLISH  SONG-WRITING. 

Songs  are  more  generally  diffused  than 
any  other  form  of  Musical  Art,  and 
penetrate  into  the  domestic  privacy  of 
more  homes  than  any  other  kind  of 
Music  whatever ;  and  consequently  the 
condition  of  that  branch  of  Art  is  a  sort  of  barometer  for 
the  state  of  public  taste  in  its  widest  sense.  In  a  country 
where  the  most  successful  songs  show  delicacy  and  refine¬ 
ment  of  thought,  neatness  of  treatment,  rhythmic  and  con¬ 
structive  interest,  genuine  sentiment  and  musical  variety, 
taste  may  be  expected  to  be  healthy  and  musical  intelligence 
high  ;  and  in  proportion  as  these  things  are  absent  must  they 
be  low.  Of  course  barometers  are  not  to  be  too  implicitly 
trusted  without  knowledge  of  some  other  signs  and  tokens, 
in  the  heavens  and  elsewhere ;  and  so  may  it  be  with  the 
Song-barometer.  Rut  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  judged  from 
both ;  and  as  far  as  the  latter  indicates  anything,  it  must  be 
judged  that  the  great  mass  of  the  public  in  this  country  have 
for  the  past  thirty  years  or  so  been  sunk  in  a  Slough  of 
Musical  Despond,  such  as  can  rarely  have  been  provided 
for  any  other  nation  under  heaven.  The  very  facilities 
which  song-writing  has  offered  for  making  money  with  the 
very  least  trouble  has  been  its  curse  ;  and  it  has  conse¬ 
quently  become  a  sort  of  business,  by  which  a  lazy  and 
slatternly  taste  is  fostered  in  the  public,  and  then  fed  with  a 
perfect  flood  of  insipid  and  commonplace  concoctions,  which 
have  been  consumed  by  the  gallon,  with  the  most  pernicious 
effects  to  art.  The  makers  of  the  patent  trade-song,  from 
which  one  may  exclude  successful  composers  in  other 
branches  of  art,  have  been  for  the  most  part  helpless 
dullards  whose  sentiment  is  sodden  with  vulgarity  and 
commonness,  whose  artistic  insight  is  a  long  way  below 
zero,  whose  ideas  of  declamation  are  an  insult  to  the 
language,  and  whose  musical  incapacity  is  tragi-comic ;  and 
these  have  been  thy  gods,  O  Israel  ! 

But  strange  to  say,  while  things  are  almost  at  their  worst, 
hopeful  signs  of  a  change  begin  to  show  themselves.  In 
default  of  a  ready  artistic  supply  of  home  growth,  there  has 
sprung  up  a  very  fair  sale  of  first-rate  foreign  products  ;  and 

69 


a  few  brave  publishers  have  risen  above  the  pessimism  of  their 
order,  and  made  up  their  minds  to  encourage  things  which 
are  artistically  meant,  and  musically  healthy — and  last,  but 
certainly  not  least,  there  are  most  encouraging  evidences  of 
the  beginning  of  a  new  outburst  of  lyric  energy  among  the 
very  young  rising  composers.  It  is  really  surprising  to  see 
how  they  come  on.  A  few  have  already  made  their  appearance 
who  show  to  an  extraordinary  degree  the  delicate  quick¬ 
ness  of  perception,  and  the  instinct  for  rounding  off  and 
completing  the  musical  presentation  of  a  first-rate  poetical 
lyric  such  as  is  among  the  rarest  of  gifts — while  those  who 
have  a  healthy  feeling  for  declamation  of  their  own  language, 
and  are  capable  of  being  inspired  by  genuine  poetry,  and  doing 
things  which  are  musically  interesting  and  refined,  look  quite 
a  promising  troop.  How  they  will  stand  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  of  the  way  remains  to  be  seen.  Meanwhile  the 
Hobby  Horse  hopes  to  have  opportunities  of  nowand  then 
carrying  round  a  specimen  of  genuine  English  Musical 
Song — such  as  has  artistic  point,  and  delicacy,  and  purity 
of  sentiment,  or  any  of  those  many  charms  which  lie  in  the 
province  of  the  genuine  song-writer ;  and  he  starts  with  a 
delicate  and  refined  specimen  by  one  of  the  foremost  in  the 
ranks  of  the  newly-rising  band,  whose  lyrics  are  beginning 
to  be  prized  and  welcomed  by  those  who  take  pleasure  in 
what  is  genuinely  artistic.  C.  Hubert  H.  Parry. 


70 


A:  SONG:  COMPOSED:  BY 
ARTHUR:SOM 
ERVELL 


JEAT  THE'WIN 
DOW.  A  SONG 
SET  TO  MUSIC  BYAKP 
SOMERVELL . 


c7\  rid  ante. 


1° 


it 


5 


1 


dj  D 


(LCX 


:=i 


Sli§ 


rie  HuaM 


zmy 


S3 


*rfy\ 


mf 

N 


U 


s 


1 


3 


I 


3 


1 


h  '  — 

K  h 

- — 

r  S - 

tW? — 

v y  « 

— 

• 

• 

— i- 

-U-r 

* 

~z - ^"T" 

— 

o 

-H- 

V7rt£ 


10U 


sees 


■  soms 


s 


sJoorjdngjjay  11  jo- 


i 


ffif 


Ff 


r ~m 


Cn 


£=£ 


3=2 


i 


1g] 


SO 


i£. 


V 


4r 


'OCO_Jj2$!L 

=Ktk  N 


? — h-fc 


-fc-V 


£ 


3=^ 


A  IS 


on  ifbe  evmny^ee^es 


mild :  yiTK 


.  «/«?  SfcO  pD 

'i, assinyon  his  Lonely  _ 

fe= 


t 


ON  REVISITING  LICHFIELD  CATHEDRAL. 

The  triple  spire  springs  heavenward  as  of  old  ; 

The  bordering  limes  stand  touched  by  no  decay 
Save  Autumn’s  ;  still  the  gathered  people  pray ; 

And  ancient  chants  through  ancient  aisles  are  rolled 
Yet  hath  not  Time  even  here,  his  wings  to  fold, 
Paused  ;  the  hoar  fane  is  full  of  yesterday ; 

New  blazonries  dye  sunlight ;  new  array 
Of  kings  and  saints  the  storied  niches  hold  : 

Pilgrim,  that  hither  stealest  to  behold 
The  spot  of  thy  departure  on  Life’s  way, 

Clings  a  like  garland  to  thy  temples  grey  ? 

Is  a  like  record  of  thy  travel  told  ? 

Rich  in  the  new,  nor  rifled  of  the  old, 

Seek’st  thou  these  precincts  fortunate  as  they  ? 

R.  Garnett. 


September  23,  1887. 


71 


HE  NEW  REREDOS  AT  ST.  PAUL’S 
CONSIDERED  IN  ITS  RELATION 
TOTHEWHOLEDESIGNOFTHAT 
CATHEDRAL. 

Perhaps  the  one  element  of  the  art  of 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,  which  abides  with 
us  above  any  other  of  the  many  and 
the  art  of  that  master,  the  one  element  in 
all  his  designs  which,  study  we  them  never  so  often,  occurs 
and  reoccurs  to  us  with  new  wonder  and  unfailing  delight, 
is  his  unparalleled  command  over  scale  :  I  mean  that  felicity 
of  his  in  so  relating  the  proportions  of  the  masses  and  lines 
of  what  is  far  away  to  what  is  near  the  eye,  that  the  whole 
composition  appears  vaster  and  more  sublime  than  it  really 
is.  The  precise  quality  of  this  aspect  of  his  art  is  of  a  nature 
so  subtle  and  evasive,  that  it  is  to  be  suggested  rather  than 
defined  however  delicately.  Indeed  it  is  better  that  it  should 
be  sought  out  every  man  for  himself,  than  that  I  or  any  other 
writer  should  attempt  to  give  in  words,  what  can  only  be 
completely  expressed  in  Architecture,  and  is  proper  to  that 
art  alone.  I  will  therefore  make  but  one  attempt  to  convey 
to  you  my  sense.  St.  Paul’s  is  to  our  hand,  and  we  can  wish 
for  no  better  example  than  the  western  front :  so  let  us  en¬ 
deavour  to  stand  apart  from  the  traffic  under  the  low  archway 
of  Doctors’  Commons,  and  watch  whoever  may  chance  to  pass 
on  the  opposite  pavement :  or  perhaps  we  may  be  more  fortu¬ 
nate,  and  find  a  man  leaning  against  the  south-western  angle 
of  the  cathedral.  His  height,  as  he  leans  there  against  the 
plinth,  will  give  us  a  certain  unit  of  measurement  by  which 
we  shall  be  enabled  to  form  a  lively  sense  of  the  height  of 
that  member.  In  like  manner,  knowing  the  invariable  pro¬ 
portion  of  the  plinth  to  the  pilasters  and  entablature,  we  gain 
thesamesenseof  the  entireorder,  and  so  of  the  second  or  super¬ 
imposed  order.  Only  observe  that  I  say  a  lively  sense,  not  an 
exact  knowledge,  a  sense  that  the  dimension  of  this  or  that 
order  is  so  many  times  the  height  of  a  man,  not  a  knowledge 
that  it  is  so  many  feet  high,  which  tells  us  no  more  than  any 
other  mathematical  conclusion.  But  I  am  digressing,and  have 
carried  you  no  farther  than  the  upper  order,  while  my  thoughts 
lie  with  the  colossal  statues  which  stand  about  the  bases  of 
the  campanili.  We  know  but  too  well  that  these  figures  are 

72 


colossal,  and  yet  are  but  too  well  content,  if  so  far  the  spirit 
of  Wren  has  taken  hold  on  us,  to  think  of  them  as  figures 
of  men  only  a  little  above  the  life.  We  may  see  in  it 
the  ‘  ultima  manus,’  or  if  we  are  people  entirely  of  this 
century,  a  mere  trick ;  but  in  the  transition  to  these  statues 
from  the  endeavour  to  estimate  the  upper  order  the  eye  is 
given  unwittingly  a  new  unit  of  measurement,  and  beholds 
in  the  campanili  a  visionary  grandeur,  which,  had  the  figures 
been  of  another  height,  it  would  not  have  divined  in  them. 
In  this  indefinable  relation,  effected  by  these  statues,  between 
the  western  steeples  and  the  men  and  women  moving  about 
the  portico,  Wren  evinces  one  of  the  finest  touches  of  his 
genius  in  its  mastery  over  scale. 

It  is  doubtless  a  desirable  and  noble  endeavour  to  make 
the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul’s  a  more  beautiful  house  for  the 
offices  of  the  Church,  and  therefore,  because  of  this  added 
beauty,  more  winning  to  the  people,  that  they  should  elect 
to  worship  there.  In  the  reredos  lately  completed  we  have  the 
first  attempt  of  any  significance  to  bring  such  an  aim  to  pass  ; 
and  in  this  it  is  worthy  of  all  commendation.  Yet  if  we 
have  any  care  for  Wren’s  work  as  a  piece  of  art  admirable 
in  itself,  the  beauty  of  which  is  rather  to  be  increased  than 
out-done  and  set  on  one  side,  we  must  before  all  things 
observe  the  principles  that  he  observed,  the  subtlest  of 
which  I  have  sought  to  point  out  to  you  in  the  foregoing 
passage.  We  must  relate  to  the  whole  building  whatever 
sculpture  or  decoration  we  may  bring  into  the  church,  in  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  manner  as  he  related  his  statues  on  the  west 
front  to  the  dome  and  the  campanili,  and,  indeed,  all  parts 
to  the  grand  idea  of  his  composition  as  a  whole ;  for  if  we 
once  break  this  harmony  of  subordination  which  runs  through 
the  entire  fabric,  there  must  needs  follow  as  pitiful  a  result, 
as  if  the  hand  of  the  painter  had  erred  in  touching  a  mouth 
or  an  eye,  or  the  finger  of  the  musician  in  the  midst  of  one 
of  the  fugues  of  Bach  had  faltered  upon  the  clavichord. 

The  matter  then,  which  I  propose  to  myself,  is  to  inquire 
how  far  the  method  and  temper  of  the  designer  of  this  new 
reredos  is  in  accordance  with  the  method  and  temper  evinced 
by  Wren  in  composing  his  cathedral  ;  to  which  end  I  shall 
first  consider  the  plan  of  the  reredos,  and  then  pass  on  to 
the  elevation.  In  the  plan  the  main  idea  is  that  of  a  central 

73  l 


altar  piece  upon  an  oblong  base,  with  a  curved  wing  on 
either  side.  These  in  the  elevation  produce  an  effect  as  of 
one  curved  surface  ;  and  placed  immediately  in  front  of  the 
semicircular  apse,  the  impression  of  the  east  end  is  that  of 
curve  against  curve.  But  the  unvarying  practice  of  Wren, 
and  indeed  of  all  the  masters  of  Renaissance  art,  is  to 
counteract  every  curved  form  by  a  rectangular  form,  and 
every  rectangular  form  by  a  curve  either  of  a  circular  or 
other  nature.  His  was  too  keen  an  instinct  not  to  show 
him  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  that  curve 
balanced  only  by  curve,  or  line  by  line,  produces  a  weak  im¬ 
pression  :  and  I  think  it  requires  very  little  discernment  to 
perceive  how  feeble  and  unscholarly  the  effect  of  the  apse 
has  been  rendered  by  the  introduction  of  these  curves  in  the 
plan  of  the  reredos.  But  to  appreciate  this  distinction  more 
clearly  let  us  turn  to  the  “  Parentalia,”  and  learn  Wren’s  own 
intention  in  the  matter.  He  had  conceived,  we  are  told,  “  a 
Design  of  an  altar-piece  consisting  of  four  Pillars  wreathed, 
of  the  richest  Greek  marble,  supporting  a  canopy  hemis¬ 
pherical  with  proper  decorations  of  architecture  and  sculp¬ 
ture.”  In  such  a  design,  the  rectangular  form  of  the 
entablature,  as  it  rested  upon  the  columns  of  Greek  marble, 
would  have  given  the  necessary  foil  to  the  apse  ;  while  the 
hemispherical  roof  would  have  connected  these  two  forms, 
and  so  have  brought  the  east  end  of  the  church  into  a 
harmony ;  and  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  other  form  of 
altar-piece,  save  that  of  a  Baldachino,  which  would  have 
exactly  fulfilled  the  conditions  necessary  to  produce  such  an 
effect. 

It  has  been  noticed  that  in  Gothic  architecture  the  hori¬ 
zontal  lines  are  always  subordinated  to  those  that  are  up¬ 
right,  but  that  in  the  Classic  styles  the  contrary  principle  is 
observed.  One  might  refine  this  criticism  still  further  by 
pointing  out  that  though  in  the  true  Antique,  as  well  as  in 
the  Renaissance  buildings,  the  upright  lines  were  never 
allowed  to  break  the  horizontal  lines,  yet  in  the  later  work, 
following,  as  it  did,  the  Gothic  spirit,  and  especially  in  the 
work  of  Wren,  the  total  impression  is  no  longer  that  of 
the  horizontal  lines  lying  grandly  upon  the  earth  as  in  the 
finest  of  the  Roman  theatres  and  temples,  but  eminently 
and  essentially  that  of  the  Mediaeval  churches  rising  with 

74 


surprising  height  and  spirituality  of  temper ;  for  the  old 
ordprs  of  Vitruvius  had  been  informed  with  a  new  spirit, 
the  spirit  of  movement  and  aspiration.  If  we  would  come 
to  examine  this  sense  of  movement  and  see  how  it  is 
attained,  we  should  find  that  such  an  analysis  is  only  to  a 
certain  extent  permitted  us,  for  the  true  secret  of  its  nature 
doubtless  is  one  with  that  of  the  inscrutable  presentation  of 
spirit  understood  in  Literature,  but  misunderstood  in  Archi¬ 
tecture,  as  style. 

So  far,  however,  as  it  is  possible,  I  will  endeavour  to 
trace  how  Wren  effected  this.  In  the  nave  of  St.  Paul’s,  as 
indeed  in  the  choir  and  transepts  of  the  church,  the  main 
pilasters,  rising  directly  from  low  bases,  are  carried  up  with¬ 
out  any  break  to  the  great  height  of  the  main  entablature. 
The  loftiness  of  these  pilasters  is  insisted  upon  chiefly  by 
two  things,  the  omittance  of  any  plinth,  and  the  immediate 
imposition  of  the  vaulting  upon  the  attic  of  the  great  order ; 
yet  in  the  subtle  management  of  these  simple  elements  Wren 
obtains  much  of  the  sense  of  movement  in  that  part  of  the 
cathedral.  But  I  am  wrong  in  saying  that  he  entirely 
avoided  the  use  of  a  plinth,  for  he  has  carried  along  the 
walls  of  the  aisles,  and  between  the  pilasters  of  the  arcade, 
a  band  of  ornament  at  that  height  from  the  ground,  which 
would  properly  have  determined  the  height  of  the  plinth  of 
the  great  order.  Wren  has  not,  however,  as  an  architect  of 
to-day  would  have  done,  ruled  this  band  of  ornament  where- 
ever  it  could  reasonably  be  drawn  on  his  elevation,  but  he 
has  used  it  here  and  there  only  as  he  instinctively  felt  it  was 
needed :  and  yet  by  this  band  of  ornament  he  gives  us  all 
the  advantages  of  a  plinth,  such  as  the  sense  of  a  solid  base 
upon  which  the  fabric  rests,  or  the  sense  of  a  unit  of 
measurement  whereby  we  can  scale  the  building,  without 
any  of  the  disadvantages  which  would  follow  in  this  instance 
from  an  interference  with  the  essential  idea  of  the  upward 
movement  of  the  great  pilasters,  consequent  on  the  received 
employment  of  such  a  member. 

If  entering  by  the  west  door  we  should  chance  for  the  first 
time  to  see  the  new  reredos  on  a  fair  day,  the  impression  of 
the  whole,  after  the  eye  has  become  a  little  accustomed  to 
the  brilliance  of  the  gold  on  the  white  marble,  is  that  of  a 
confusion  of  many  columns  and  much  sculpture  resting 

75 


upon  a  double  plinth.  Nor  is  the  designer  content  with 
introducing  a  double  plinth  into  a  building  of  an  acknow¬ 
ledged  master,  where  this  member  is  only  suggested,  and 
that  with  the  most  subtle  and  delicate  art,  but  he  must 
insist  on  their  horizontal  lines  by  introducing  bands  of  dark 
coloured  marble  which  stand  out  with  astonishing  signi¬ 
ficance,  inlayed  as  they  are  in  the  crystalline  splendour  of 
the  white  marble.  The  result  is  an  effect  contrary  to  that 
which  Wren  has  striven  to  obtain  ;  and  instead  of  move¬ 
ment  and  sublimity  we  receive  a  painful  sense  of  a  deadness 
and  lateral  spread. 

i  spoke  a  few  lines  since  of  the  confusion  of  many  columns 
and  much  sculpture  ;  to  make  my  meaning  clear,  let  us  walk 
to  either  side  of  the  dome  so  that  we  can  see  the  wood-work 
of  the  choir-stalls.  Here  also  is  much  ornament  and  of  a 
most  florid  kind,  the  naturalistic  carving  of  Grinling 
Gibbons.  Technically  it  is  very  wonderful ;  but  wonderful 
only  as  that  pot  of  flowers  by  him,  which  shook  surprisingly 
with  the  motion  of  the  coaches  passing  by  in  the  street 
below,  was  wonderful.  Yet  in  this  wood-work  is  neither 
confusion  nor  restlessness,  because  this  wealth  of  ornament 
is  never  allowed  to  break  or  interfere  with  the  chief  lines, 
which  are  always  of  the  simplest  and  severest  nature.  In¬ 
deed  this  florid  ornament  is  subordinated  to  these  simple 
and  severe  lines  in  the  same  manner  as  the  lines  themselves 
are  subordinated,  both  in  their  kind  and  proportions,  to  the 
chief  lines  of  the  building.  But  in  the  reredos  all  these  prin¬ 
ciples  have  been  passed  over ;  the  chief  lines  are  wanting  in 
simplicity ;  the  sculpture  and  ornament  are  neither  subor¬ 
dinated  to  these  chief  lines  nor  in  themselves  finely  dis¬ 
posed  ;  and  lastly,  the  design  of  the  reredos  as  a  whole  is 
not  related  to  the  design  of  the  cathedral  so  as  to  become  a 
part  of  it,  as  the  choir-stalls  and  the  screens  of  the  side 
chapels  are  a  part  of  it. 

The  chief  lines  are  wanting  in  simplicity.  If  we  consider 
the  lesser  order  of  the  colonnade  in  relation  to  the  wreathed 
order  of  the  altar-piece  proper,  we  miss  that  perfect  sense  of 
union  between  the  two  orders  which  is  distinctive  of  the 
finest  work  ;  but  if  we  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of  the 
lesser  order  of  the  wings  in  relation  to  the  double  plinth,  we 
are  distressed  by  a  most  unpleasing  disproportion,  an  entire 

76 


want  of  harmony;  and  without  true  harmony  it  is  impossible 
to  obtain  true  simplicity,  else  were  baldness  simplicity. 
But,  moreover,  there  is  a  want  of  simplicity  in  a  more 
definite  sense  ;  for  a  double  plinth  and  a  double  order  has 
been  used,  where  in  such  instances  Wren  has  employed  but 
a  single  order  with  the  usual  plinth. 

The  sculpture  and  ornament  are  neither  subordinated  to 
these  chief  lines,  nor  in  themselves  finely  disposed.  I  must 
confess  I  have  been  unable  to  discover  what  we  are  to  under¬ 
stand  by  the  term  “  Greek  marble,”  of  which  Wren  intended 
to  fashion  the  four  wreathed  columns  of  the  Baldachino : 
but  from  being  spoken  of  as  u  the  richest,”  it  would  seem  to 
have  been  of  a  deep  colour,  and  not  the  marble  of  Pentelicus, 
or  some  other  of  an  ivory  sort.  However,  I  am  certain  it 
was  of  such  a  kind,  that  viewed  from  a  distance  it  would  have 
appeared  of  a  uniform  tone  :  for  a  marble  of  a  very  pro¬ 
nounced  figure  would  ill  agree  with  the  elaborate  lines  of  this 
form  of  column.  But  the  architect  of  the  reredos  has  not 
only  overlooked  this  nicety,  but  he  has  garlanded  his  columns 
with  gilt  leafage  work ;  so  that  when  we  look  at  them  from 
a  distance  the  outline  of  the  columns  is  lost  in  the  sheen  of 
the  gilding  and  the  mottling  of  the  marble,  and  we  do 
not  receive  from  them  that  impression,  which  is  the  first 
thing  to  be  demanded  of  a  column,  the  sense  of  support. 
This  is  but  one  instance  of  a  want  of  due  subordination  in 
the  ornament  to  the  chief  lines  of  the  design.  But  touching 
the  disposition  of  the  sculpture  ;  let  us  consider  the  central 
subject,  the  Crucifixion,  as  a  mere  arrangement  of  white 
masses  against  a  dark  background,  and  then  turn  to  a  fine 
example  of  the  Florentine  art  it  would  emulate,  such  as  that 
altar-piece  by  Andrea  della  Robbia  in  the  cathedral  at 
Arezzo,  and  how  insipid  an  imitation  does  it  appear  by  the 
contrast !  What  variety  is  there  obtained  by  the  simple 
balance  of  the  crucified  Christ  against  the  two  kneeling 
figures !  With  what  delicacy  are  the  three  groups  of  angels 
on  either  side  of  the  cross  given  their  right  degree  of 
prominence ;  with  what  mastery  are  the  winged  heads  dis¬ 
posed  !  But  here  there  is  neither  variety,  nor  a  musical 
arrangement  of  the  masses. 

Lastly,  the  design  of  the  reredos  as  a  whole  is  not  related 
to  the  design  of  the  cathedral  so  as  to  become  a  part  of  it, 

77 


as  the  choir-stalls  and  the  screens  of  the  side  chapels  are  a 
part  of  it.  By  placing  the  lesser  order  of  the  wings  upon 
the  double  plinth,  the  highest  member  of  its  cornice  is 
brought  on  a  level  with  the  corresponding  member  of  the 
cornice  of  the  pilasters  that  support  the  arcade ;  by  this 
device  not  only  is  Wren’s  practice  in  the  use  of  a  diminu¬ 
tive  order  inverted,  but  the  whole  effect  of  the  arcade  of 
the  choir  is  dwarfed,  and  all  the  finest  touches  of  his  art  to 
give  that  essential  impression  of  movement  and  sublimity 
rendered  of  no  avail.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  most  serious  defect  of  the  whole  design,  its 
excessive  height.  Seen  from  the  nave  of  the  cathedral,  we 
have  in  the  apse  an  echo  of  the  lines  of  the  dome,  and  a 
beautiful  close  of  the  many  lines  of  the  building.  It  was 
desirable  to  hide  as  little  of  this  by  an  altar-piece  as  possible, 
and  so  for  this  reason  the  form  of  a  Baldachino  especially 
commended  itself.  But  now  the  apse  is  practically  cut  off 
from  the  rest  of  the  church,  and  the  reredos,  from  its  great 
height  and  extent,  becomes  a  portion  of  the  structure, 
instead  of  the  design  of  the  cathedral. 

It  would  seem  to  me,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
discover,  that  the  architect  of  the  new  reredos  has  en¬ 
deavoured  to  produce  an  effect  of  light  and  shade  upon  the 
white  marble  columns  and  golden  capitals  as  they  mingle 
with  the  perspective  of  the  apse  beyond,  an  effect  akin  in 
temper,  though  but  superficially,  to  the  temper  of  Gothic 
tabernacle-work  with  its  want  of  restraint  and  its  freedom 
from  premeditation.  But  the  mysterious  effects  of  Wren 
were  very  differently  produced.  A  critic,  perhaps  the 
subtlest  of  our  age,  has  observed  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  that 
he  was  always  desirous  of  beauty,  “  but  desired  it  always  in 
such  definite  and  precise  forms,  as  hands  or  flowers  or  hair.” 
And  so  it  was  with  Wren,  who  was  always  so  desirous  of 
mysterious  beauty,  of  vast  sublimity,  but  desired  it  not  only 
in  the  definite  and  precise  forms  of  the  architecture  of  that 
time,  but  in  these  forms  used  so  logically  that  we  can  say 
why  each  is  used  as  it  is,  and  not  otherwise :  indeed,  there 
is  no  whit  of  his  detail  which  he  has  not  argued  out  to  its 
last  conclusion.  Of  these  mere  externals  of  his  art  we  can 
speak  with  precision,  as  one  might  gather  up  in  one’s  hands 
the  abundance  of  a  woman’s  hair ;  yet  the  inscrutable  spirit 
of  the  thing  evades  us,  and  we  cannot  divine,  even  in  our 

78 


I 


own  hearts,  of  what  its  mysterious  beauty  really  consists ; 
and  who,  then,  shall  speak  of  these  things  ? 

The  day  is  almost  too  late  to  put  forth  any  suggestions 
concerning  the  decoration  of  St.  Paul’s  :  besides  my  re¬ 
marks  are  likely  to  be  the  most  unpopular  in  this  age  of 
extravagances  ;  but  this,  by  the  way,  is  a  reason  why  I 
should  hazard  them.  Excepting,  perhaps,  some  of  the 
mosaics  in  the  spandril  of  the  dome,  any  attempt  as  yet  by 
way  of  decoration,  has  been  far  from  satisfactory.  The 
gilding  of  the  stonework  makes  but  a  tawdry  show  and  is 
little  in  keeping  with  the  solid  magnificence  of  the  masonry ; 
and  yet  the  problem  is  to  tone  down  the  cold  effect  of  the 
interior,  as  we  see  it  at  present.  If  the  stonework  is  to  be 
left  untouched,  this  can  only  be  effected  by  the  introduction 
of  colour  in  the  glazing  of  the  windows;  but  here,  again,  we 
are  met  by  another  difficulty :  for  stained  glass  is  essentially 
mediaeval  in  sentiment,  and  the  substitution  of  the  irregular 
leading  of  the  modern  windows  for  the  square  panes  of 
Wren’s  clear  glazing  is  in  result  so  unhappy,  that  the  mellow 
light  thus  gained  in  no  way  balances  the  loss  of  the  original 
paning,  the  effect  of  which  was  so  finely  calculated  by  Wren. 
There  is  in  the  three  little  eastern  windows  of  the  crypt, 
some  painted  glass  which,  I  am  told,  has  been  designed 
and  executed,  within  the  last  few  years,  by  Mr.  Westlake. 
Here  the  square  panes  are  more  or  less  preserved,  and  the 
design  is  freely  drawn  in  a  dark,  reddish-brown  colour, 
regardless  in  a  certain  sense  of  the  lead  lines;  and  no 
colour  is  introduced  excepting  the  occasional  use,  here  and 
there,  of  a  simple  yellow  stain.  Windows  such  as  these,  if 
we  will  only  make  clear  to  ourselves  the  difference  between 
painted  and  stained  glass,  and  the  necessary  conditions 
proper  to  the  production  of  each,  may  be  made  as  fine  and 
legitimate  examples  of  art  as  the  Jesse  window  at  York,  or 
the  windows  of  some  of  the  French  cathedrals.  They  would 
be  sufficient  to  mellow  the  cold  masses  of  the  stone  work ; 
they  would  partake  of  the  temper  of  the  building  ;  and,  above 
all  things,  the  regular  paning  of  Wren,  which  is  so  essential 
to  complete  the  full  beauty  of  the  whole  composition,  could 
be  exactly  preserved  in  them. 

One  word  concerning  the  mosaics  and  then  I  have  done. 
In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  urged  against  Sir  James 
Thornhill’s  paintings  in  the  dome,  however  unworthy  they 

79 


may  be  as  paintings,  yet  considered  purely  from  an  archi¬ 
tectural  stand-point  there  is  much  in  them  that  is  eminently 
satisfactory.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  it  was  from  no  wish  of 
Wren’s  that  their  execution  was  entrusted  to  Thornhill,  that 
the  faults  of  perspective  in  them  are  unpardonable,  and  that 
Wren  himself  desired  that  the  dome  should  be  covered  with 
mosaics.  Despite  even  these  objections,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  their  architectural  lines  were  founded  on  the  suggestions 
of  Wren,  and  that  any  new  design  which  is  to  replace  them 
by  mosaics  must  be  based  upon  some  variation  of  their 
constructional  lines,  if  it  is  to  be  permanently  admired.  To 
me,  that  extraordinary  sense  of  vastness,  which  we  now  feel 
on  looking  up  into  the  dome,  is  due  in  no  slight  measure  to 
the  absence  of  colour ;  for  the  sombre  tones  of  the  grissaile 
work  mingle  with  that  cloud  of  grey  atmosphere  which  so 
often  hovers  beneath  the  cupola,  obscuring  all,  until  we 
actually  seem  to  fancy  an  apprehension  of  something  beyond 
the  dome.  Cover  this  retired  space  with  the  brilliance  of 
many  colours,  and  from  being  far  off  and  uncertain,  its  field 
will  become  distinct,  and  so  appear  nearer  the  eye  than  it 
does  at  present.  But,  after  all,  do  not  spaces  that  are  nearer 
the  eyes,  such  as  the  vaults  under  the  balconies  in  the  dome, 
at  the  junction  of  the  aisles  of  the  transepts  with  those  of 
the  nave  and  choir,  first  demand  to  be  filled  ?  Let  these, 
then,  be  covered  with  mosaics  of  a  low  and  mellow  tone, 
where  neither  gold  nor  vivid  hues  have  too  marked  a 
prominence ;  for  nothing  is  farther  from  the  intention  of 
Wren  than  this  wealth  of  sumptuous  marbles,  this  prodigal 
blaze  of  colour,  who  much  as  he  delighted  in  the  beauty  of 
porphyry  and  jasper,  and  in  the  richness  of  splendid  mosaics, 
spared  yet  to  “  interpose  them  oft,”  and  was  not  unwise. 
He  loved  these  things,  indeed,  but  he  used  them  seldom,  that 
thereby  they  might  appear  the  more  precious.  We  err  if  we 
think  that  Wren  conceived  of  his  cathedral  as  ultimately  to 
be  filled  with  all  the  exuberance  of  the  Roman  art  of  his 
time  ;  it  was  conceived  in  the  same  temper  as  that  in  which 
Milton  conceived  the  “  Samson  Agonistes”;  with  the  same 
severe  restraint,  possible  only  to  the  greatest  spirits,  as  of 
one  working  in  perpetual  awe  of  the  imminent  presence  of 
God;  with  the  same  simplicity  and  “plain  heroic  magnitude 
of  mind.”  Herbert  P.  Horne. 


So 


THE  MEMORIAL 

TO  THE  MEN  OF  LETTERS  OF  THE 
LAKE  DISTRICT. 

We  appealed  to  our  subscribers,  about  a  year  ago,  for  a 
memorial  to  the  writers  who  are  connected  with  the  English 
Lakes.  The  more  pressing  needs  of  the  Royal  Jubilee 
deferred  the  execution  of  our  scheme ;  but  it  has  not  been 
abandoned,  and  in  July  we  hope  to  report  well  of  its  further 
progress.  We  thank  those  who  have  already  helped  us  ;  we 
remind  those  who  were  interested  in  our  plan,  that  subscrip¬ 
tions  will  now  be  thankfully  received ;  and  we  refer  all  other 
readers  to  our  number  for  January,  1887. 

The  Century  Guild. 


NOTES  ON  CONTEMPORARY  WORK. 


Miss  May  Morris  has  recently  finished  two  large  curtains,  em¬ 
broidered  from  her  own  designs,  upon  a  rich  brocaded  silk  of  a  grayish 
blue  colour.  A  scroll  carried  along  the  top  of  the  curtain  bears  this 
verse,  written  especially  for  her  by  Mr.  Morris,  which  best  gives  the 
idea  of  the  design  : — 

Lo,  silken  my  garden,  and  silken  my  sky, 

Silken  the  apple-boughs  hanging  on  high, 

All  wrought  by  the  worm  in  the  peasant-carle’s  cot, 

On  the  mulberry  leafage,  when  summer  was  not. 

And  so  in  this  garden  of  embroidery  a  large  scroll-like  leaf,  worked 
in  pale  green  and  white  silks,  mixed  with  other  leaves  and  flowers, 
meanders  over  the  blue  background.  On  these  are  placed,  in 
decorative  masses,  the  bushes  of  the  garden,  or  rather  Giottesque 
clusters  of  boughs  done  in  almost  a  vivid  green,  some  bearing  apples, 
others  flowers,  others  fruit  and  flowers.  Embroideries  such  as  these, 
remarkable  for  the  extreme  beauty  of  their  design,  colour,  and  execu¬ 
tion,  and  important  on  account  of  their  size,  almost  awake  in  us  the 
hope  that  the  days  of  the  ‘  Opus  Anglicum  ’  may  yet  return  to  us. 

Amongst  the  many  men  of  ability  who  gained  the  wide  sympathy 
of  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  not  the  least  remarkable  was  J.  Smetham 
Allen.  His  mastery  over  his  art  is  as  wonderful  as  the  means  of  ex¬ 
pression  he  employs  is  singular.  Mr.  Allen  has  the  curious  faculty  of 
conceiving  a  design  in  silhouette  so  strongly  that  he  is  able,  without 
hesitation,  to  cut  it  straight  away  out  of  a  sheet  of  drawing  paper  ;  nor 
does  he  first  avail  himself  of  any  pencil  sketch,  or  other  preliminary  help. 
These  silhouettes  sometimes  contain  six  or  more  figures,  and  from  their 
imaginative  qualities,  design,  and  beauty  of  contour,  are,  in  certain 
ways,  comparable  to  the  outlines  of  Flaxman.  They  are,  indeed, 
illustrations  in  the  best  and  only  admissible  sense  of  the  word  ;  for 
not  only,  as  in  a  series  recently  done  from  ‘A  Midsummer  Night’s 
Dream/  is  every  subject  thoroughly  realized,  but  each  design,  from 
its  imaginative  rendering,  becomes  in  its  turn  an  original  conception. 
In  the  hope  that  these  few  words  may  lead  some  of  our  readers  to 
take  an  interest  in  Mr.  Allen’s  work,  I  will  add  that  any  inquiries  will 
find  him  at  i,  Ockenden  Road,  Essex  Road,  N. 


THE  CENTURY  GUILD  WORK. 


The  Architects  : 

Messrs.  Mackmurdo  &  Horne,  28,  Southampton  St.,  Strand,  W.C. 

Business  Agents  for  Furniture  and  Decoration,  Tapestries,  Silks, 
Cretonnes,  Wall  Papers,  etc.  : 

Messrs.  Wilkinson  &  Son,  8,  Old  Bond  St.,  W. 

Messrs.  Goodall  &  Co.,  15  &  17,  King  St.,  Manchester. 

Picture  Frames  designed  by  the  Guild  : 

Mr.  Murcott,  Framemaker,  6,  Endell  St.,  Long  Acre,  W.C. 

Beaten  and  Chased  Brass,  Copper,  and  Iron  Work  : 

Mr.  Esling,  at  the  Agents  of  the  Century  Guild. 

In  drawing  attention  to  our  own  work,  we  have  added,  with  their  permission, 
the  names  of  those  workers  in  art  whose  aim  seems  to  us  most  nearly  to  accord 
with  the  chief  aim  of  this  magazine.  Our  list  at  present  is  necessarily  limited, 
but  with  time  and  care  we  hope  to  remedy  this  defect. 

Embroidery  : 

The  Royal  School  of  Art  Needlework,  Exhibition  Road,  South 
Kensington,  W. 

Miss  May  Morris  gives  private  lessons  in  embroidery,  particulars 
on  application,  Kelmscott  House,  Upper  Mall,  Hammersmith. 

Engraved  Books  and  Facsimiles  of  the  Works  of  Wm.  Blake  : 

Mr.  Muir,  The  Blake  Press,  Edmonton. 

To  be  had  of  Mr.  Ouaritch,  15,  Piccadilly,  W. 

Furniture  and  Decoration  : 

Rhoda  and  Agnes  Garrett,  2,  Gower  St,  W.C. 

J.  Aldam  Heaton,  27,  Charlotte  St,  Bedford  Sq.,  W.C. 

Carpets,  Silks,  Velvets,  Chintzes,  and  Wall  Papers,  Embroidery,  and 
Painted  Glass: 

Messrs.  Morris  &  Company,  449,  Oxford  St.,  W. 


Carving,  and  Modelling  for  Terra  Cotta  or  Plaster  Work  : 

Mr.  B.  Creswick,  At  the  Agents  of  the  Century  Guild. 

Designing  and  Engraving  upon  Wood  : 

Mr.  W.  H.  Hooper,  5,  Hammersmith  Terrace,  W. 

Flint  Glass,  cut  and  blown,  also  Painted  Glass  : 

Messrs.  J.  Powell  &  Sons,  Whitefriars  Glass  Works,  Temple  St.,  E.C. 

Painted  Glass,  and  Painting  applied  to  Architecture  and  Furniture  : 

Mr.  Selwyn  Image,  51,  Rathbone  Place,  W.C. 

Painted  Pottery  and  Tiles  : 

Mr.  William  De  Morgan,  45,  Great  Marlborough  St.,  Regent  St.,  W. 
Picture  Frames  : 

Mr.  Charles  Rowley,  St.  Ann’s  St.,  Manchester. 

Printing  : 

The  Chiswick  Press,  21,  Tooks  Court,  Chancery  Lane,  E.C. 

All  Kinds  of  Wind  Instruments  : 

Rudall,  Rose,  Carte  &  Co.,  23,  Berners  St.,  W. 

Reproductions  of  Pictures  : 

Photographs  of  Pictures  by  D.  G.  Rossetti, 

To  be  had  of  Mr.  W.  M.  Rossetti,  5,  Endsleigh  Gardens,  N.W. 

Platinotype  Photographs  from  the  Works  of  G.  F.  Watts,  R.A.,  E. 
Burne-Jones,  A.R.A.,  and  others, 

Mr.  Hollyer,  9,  Pembroke  Square,  Kensington,  W. 

Processes  for  Reproduction  of  Pictures  and  Drawings  as  used  in  this 
Magazine, 

Messrs.  Walker  &  Boutall,  16,  Clifford’s  Inn,  Fleet  St.,  E.C. 


CHISWICK  PRESS  : — C.  WHITTINGHAM  AND  CO.  TOOKS  COURT,  CHANCERY  LANE.